


Lifeline

by SeveralSmallHedgehogs



Series: Lifeline [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff and Angst, Keith's dad shows up, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Social Awkwardness, Some Cursing, Verbal Abuse, background shallura - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-12 11:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7933765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeveralSmallHedgehogs/pseuds/SeveralSmallHedgehogs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith's not doing so well in school, so Lance brings him donuts to cheer him up.  Then Lance overhears some stuff Keith didn't want anybody to know about, and things go downhill from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Scissors

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this while I was listening to "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and I honestly don't know what happened. It mutated. That's all I can say for sure. 
> 
> Enjoy!

          Keith was sitting on his bed reading a book when he heard a knock on the window. He looked up and nearly had a coronary, but his only outward reaction was a blink.

          Outside the window, kneeling on the roof of the porch, was Lance. Grinning and holding up a bag of chocolate mini donuts.

          Setting his book aside, Keith opened the window and asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

          “Thought you could use some company,” Lance replied, sitting down cross-legged and tearing open the bag. “Here. Donut?”

          Keith took it and stuffed it in his mouth. Dinner had been hours ago, and he hadn’t felt like eating much at the time. Now he was hungry enough to eat the whole bag of donuts, but he hadn’t wanted to go back downstairs to get something to eat.

Only once he’d finished chewing and swallowed did he ask, “How did you get up here?”

          “It was tough, but I figured it out- I climbed up on the fence, then that little shed over there.” Lance pointed down below. “Then I pulled myself up from there.”

          “Wow.”  
          “Yeah. Those swim team muscles, though.” Lance flexed one arm; the results weren’t very impressive. He was stronger than he looked, but… he looked like a beanpole, so that wasn’t saying much.

          Keith snorted and fished another donut out of the bag. “Are you going to come inside?” he asked.

          “Nah,” Lance replied, his mouth full. “I’ve got mud on my shoes.”

          “Right.” If Keith’s parents saw mud on the carpet, they’d probably figure out he’d had someone over. Or worse, they’d think he’d snuck out. Better to play it safe.

          “What are you grounded for, anyway?” Lance wanted to know.

          “D in English Composition.”

          “And here I thought you _wanted_ the D,” Lance replied. He said it so casually it took Keith a second to catch his drift. He punched Lance’s arm through the window, but that just made him laugh.

          “Asshole,” Keith said.

          “You know you love me,” Lance replied, making a heart with his hands. Keith swatted them down, but Lance just laughed again. Keith squelched the urge to lean forward and kiss him.

          The thing was that, while Lance knew Keith was gay as hell, he had no idea that Keith had a crush on him- and Keith did his damn best to keep it that way. He’d been doing it for over a year now, and while he’d thought about telling Lance over a dozen times, he always decided against it. He wanted Lance to know, but he also didn’t want anything to change between them. He liked this. He liked Lance sitting outside his window with a bag of donuts, joking around to try and cheer him up. Better to just wait and hope the crush would go away on its own.

          But the fact that Lance was just naturally affectionate didn’t help at all. Take the making-a-heart-with-his-hands thing, for example; he did that a lot. And he tended to throw his arms around people’s shoulders and give them a sort of one-armed hug. And he had no problem with sitting _really_ close to other people.

          And Keith probably should have asked him to stop with the half-flirting, but he hadn’t because he _liked_ it. He liked it when Lance slung an arm around his shoulders, or when he was sitting so close Keith could feel the heat from his thigh. He liked it when Lance made a heart at him, even if he was just joking.

          He felt pathetic, because the gestures weren’t meant the way he wished they were, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask Lance to stop. He had no doubt that Lance would do it without question. But telling him to stop would be like taking a pair of scissors and cutting off a lifeline. It would be so easy to do, and impossible to take back. So, he didn’t. The scissors stayed right there on the table. There were way too many things on the table.

          Lance popped another donut into his mouth, and the movement drew Keith out of his thoughts. “How long are you in for?” Lance asked. His mouth was still full.

          “Until my grade’s back up.”

          “That sucks. How long do you think that’s going to be?”

          Keith shrugged. “I don’t know. Depends on whether I can get extra credit.”

          “You could ask to copy Pidge’s homework,” Lance suggested. “That oughta bring your grade up pretty fast.”

          “Yeah, until I get caught,” Keith replied, although copying Pidge’s homework wouldn’t help. The homework wasn’t the problem. But Lance didn’t know that. Lance didn’t know a lot of things. “I’d take a fifty over a zero and a trip to detention.”

          Lance put his head back against the wall, tapping a donut against his chin. “You could…”

          A sound from somewhere nearby in the house made both of them freeze. Keith half turned, listening. There were footsteps on the stairs. He’d learned to recognize footsteps, and these belonged to his dad.

“Hide,” he hissed to Lance.

          “Where?” Lance asked, his voice rising in pitch.

          “Just- get out of view of the window! And don’t make a sound!”

          Lance scrambled to the side and put his back to the wall outside the window. A beat later he reached out and grabbed the donut bag, pulling it over into his lap. Keith saw him quickly grab one and stuff it into his mouth. At least Lance made his priorities clear.

          Keith yanked his chair out from his desk and opened a notebook at random, then grabbed a textbook and flipped it open. He could only hope his dad wouldn’t notice him doing calculus homework from a chemistry book.

          His dad knocked on the door.

          “Hang on,” Keith said, getting to his feet, but his dad was already opening the door and stepping into the room. “What is it?”

          “I want to talk to you about your grades again,” he said, taking a seat in the chair next to the door. “Sit down.”

          Keith obeyed. “It’s not like they’ve changed in the last few hours.”

          “But I want to know why they got so bad in the first place.”

          _So would I,_ Keith thought, but swallowed the words before he could say them. Instead he remained silent.

          His dad asked, “Have you been doing your homework?”

          “Yeah,” Keith replied.

          “Have you been turning it in?”

          “Yes.” What kind of idiot would do his homework and not turn it in? _Lance,_ Keith’s mind immediately provided. Lance did it all the time. But Keith didn’t- he turned his homework in. And he got good grades back.

          “What about the tests?” his dad continued.

          Keith winced, and he noticed it. “Have you been taking the tests?”

          “Of _course_ I’ve been taking the tests,” he said, irritated.

          His dad’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t yell at me. If you’ve been taking the tests, why have you been doing so badly? Have you been studying?”

          _I’m not yelling._ “Yeah,” Keith replied, although admittedly he hadn’t studied all that much. Not that studying would have helped. English was his worst subject- he had trouble making sense of all the metaphors, and symbolism, and basically anything that wasn’t outright stated. No amount of studying could fix that. “I just- I have trouble with… with some of the stuff.”

          “Have you tried going to tutoring?”

          _Tutoring? Lance would never let me hear the end of it._ “No,” he admitted. “It wouldn’t help. I just can’t do some of it. I’ve tried, and I can’t.”

          “So you’re telling me you’re not smart enough.”

          _I never said that._ Keith took deep, even breaths, struggling to keep his responses from slipping out. _But you know what? Maybe not. Maybe I’m just not smart enough._

“No,” he said slowly. “I just…”

          His dad sighed, interrupting him. “Keith, I just don’t understand. You got such good grades when you were younger. What happened?”

          Keith kept his mouth shut. There was no right answer. This happened a lot- he reached a point in the conversation where there was no right answer. Anything he said would just dig him deeper. Staying silent was almost as bad, but it was the best course of action.

          There was a long, long silence. Keith kept his eyes downcast, but he knew his dad was studying him, looking disappointed. Like Keith was doing this on purpose to let him down. “Would you like me or your mom to email your teacher?” he asked. “Get you some extra help?”

          “No,” Keith said. _God, no._

          “Then what? How can I help you? What can I do?”

          _I don’t want your goddamn help. I want you to go away._ Keith kept silent, but he knew that his expression had morphed into a scowl, no doubt giving his thoughts away. He had a good poker face most of the time, but around his dad, that careful control just vanished.

          His dad sighed. “You know, I put up with so much shit. I put up with so much shit from you. I’ve done everything I can for you. Your mother _and_ I have been doing our best for you, and you’re just throwing it away because you’re just lazy.”

          Keith couldn’t form a coherent response. Not even in his head. His brain felt full of static. He kept his eyes down.

After a moment, his dad finally got up and left, leaving the door open. Keith got up and shut it. Then he locked it. His dad wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, but locking it was a comfort, a barrier between in here and out there.

          Keith sat down on his bed and swallowed hard, taking deep breaths to try to calm down.

          “…Keith?”

          He whirled around. Lance sat outside on the roof, wide-eyed.

          He had forgotten to shut the goddamn window.

          They were both silent. Lance seemed to be speechless, for once, and Keith was too embarrassed to look at him. He couldn’t believe he’d let Lance hear him getting chewed out like that.

Lance searched for something to say. “Well,” he hazarded, “that sucked.”

          “No kidding.” Keith kept his eyes down.

          There was a pause. Lance poked his head through the window. “ _I_ still like you,” he said, trying for a smile and attempting to catch Keith’s gaze.

Keith shut his eyes. “Lance- just don’t. Stop it. You’ve gotta quit with the- the…” He gestured vaguely. “ _This._ The flirting. It’s getting really old.”

          Lance blinked, and if Keith had been looking he would have seen the look in his eyes: a combination of hurt and confusion and shame. “Oh,” Lance said. “Sorry. I didn’t- I didn’t realize it bothered you.”

          “Well, it does,” Keith told him bitterly, glaring at the floor. “So just stop, all right? I’m sick of it.”

          “All right,” Lance agreed. After a moment he asked, “…Should I leave?”

          “Yeah,” Keith replied. “You probably better.”

          Lance hesitated for a second, looking like he wanted to say something. But then he seemed to decide against it. He shuffled away and climbed down off the roof, taking the donut bag with him. Keith shut the window and pulled the blinds before he was even out of sight.

          Then he sat at his desk and put his face in his hands. “Stupid,” he muttered, fighting tears. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

          What kind of idiot would cut his own lifeline?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta!


	2. Got You Covered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just say what you mean, guys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge, you're really not helping.

          As he waited for the bus the next morning, Keith was a nervous wreck. He’d spent the whole night staring at the ceiling, too worked up to even try sleeping. What was he going to say to Lance? And what was he going to tell the others? They were going to notice right away that something was wrong. He needed to make sure Lance didn’t tell the others what he’d overheard.

          The bus pulled up, and Keith got on and went all the way to the back, slouching against the window. Maybe if he sank low enough, Lance wouldn’t spot him when he got on three stops later.

          As the bus reached Lance’s stop, Keith searched the small group of students and immediately spotted him- he stood nearly a head taller than everyone else. Keith scooted away from the window and peered around the seat in front of him, watching Lance climb the stairs.

          Lance’s eyes swept the bus. Keith debated ducking back behind the seat, but before he could, Lance spotted him and froze.

          There was a pause that probably felt longer than it really was.

          And then, without a word or a nod or even a wave, Lance turned and sat down at the front of the bus.

          Keith sat back as the bus pulled away from the curb. Lance had _always_ sat with him before. Even when they had arguments, even when one of them was sick, even after they got into a physical fight during freshman year and Keith got a black eye and Lance got a bloody nose.

          That, if nothing else, told him that this time was different. This time Lance wasn’t going to forgive him so easily. Because that had to be it- Lance was mad at him. And Keith could understand that; Lance had only been trying to help, and Keith had snapped at him.

          He understood. He didn’t blame Lance.

          He just wished it didn’t mean he had to sit alone.

 

           Their group met in the same place every day, at a bench outside the hallway with all of the math classrooms. Lance made a beeline for it as soon as he got inside, and Keith followed, twenty paces behind him. Several times he considered turning and walking back the way he’d come. If he pretended he’d gotten sidetracked, he could delay having to face Lance and the others.

          But he had nowhere else to go, so he resigned himself to the awkward silences and headed for the bench. The sound of laughter drifted toward him from the bench, and he could just barely see Lance up ahead, grinning as he dropped his bag on the floor.

          They were in their usual arrangement: Hunk, Lance, and Pidge sat on the floor, and Shiro and Allura, the seniors in the group, sat on the bench at the others’ insistence. It embarrassed Shiro, but Allura seemed to like it. “It makes us look important,” she’d remarked. “Just go with it. It means we don’t have to sit on the floor.”

          They were laughing at something Lance had said. There wouldn’t really be a better time to interrupt- might as well do it now.

Keith steeled his nerves and walked up, wordlessly taking his seat on the floor between Lance and Pidge. Pidge didn’t even look up from their laptop, but then, they didn’t look up for much of anything.

          Shiro smiled. “Hey, Keith. How was your weekend?”

          “It was fine,” Keith replied, glad they were asking him the easy questions first.

          There was a pause. Allura looked from Keith to Lance, and back again. She folded her arms. “All right, what’s going on? You two are acting strange.”

          Keith winced. Why was she so good at noticing stuff like this?  
          “Nothing,” Lance said, leaning back on his hands. “We are totally A-ok.”

          “Lance,” Shiro admonished.

          “What? We’re _fine,_ see?” Lance lifted an arm as if to wrap it around Keith, but abruptly stopped and lowered it again. He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze.

          Shiro and Allura exchanged a look. Pidge even took off their headphones and frowned. “What’s going on? Did Lance say something weird while I wasn’t listening?”

          “Hey!” Lance sat up. “Why is _that_ what you come up with first?”

          “That’s the usual reason,” Pidge said blankly.

          “Keith, Lance,” Shiro broke in, ever the peacemaker, “Just tell us what’s going on, and we’ll try to help.”

          Lance looked at Keith, and Keith’s stomach clenched. He knew that look. Lance had never been good at keeping secrets. He was going to tell them.

          Keith clenched his fists as Lance turned to the others and said, “I went over to Keith’s house to cheer him up because of a bad grade, and he was changing when I got up to his window so I kinda saw him in his underwear.”

          Pidge cackled. Everyone else looked embarrassed, including Lance, although he was grinning, too. But all Keith could do was stare at him.

          Lance had absolutely everyone convinced. He had come up with a perfect excuse that made sense, and his delivery had been flawless. The others all believed him completely. Only Keith knew he was lying to their faces.

          Which made him wonder how many times Lance had done it before.

 

          Keith had first period with Pidge. Most of the time they walked together without speaking. That was one of the things Keith appreciated about Pidge- they were okay with not talking- usually. Not today.

          “Did Lance really see you in your underwear?” Pidge asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the others. Of all the days for them to feel like chatting.

          “Yeah,” Keith said, red-faced at having to say it even though it wasn’t true.

          “Don’t worry about it,” Pidge told him. “I mean, it could’ve been worse. You could’ve been naked, or something.”  
          “Pidge.”

          “Or _you_ could’ve walked in on _him._ ”

          “Pidge, please stop.”

          “All right.” Pidge didn’t seem to notice that Keith had gone completely red, right down to his collar. Oblivious, they put their headphones back on and let Keith walk the rest of the way in silence.

          It was hard to concentrate in class. Keith had been nervous before, but now he was nervous _and_ distracted because he _couldn’t stop thinking_ about the images Pidge had put into his head. Finally, he gave up trying to take notes and just tried to look like he was at least listening. This was US History class, after all. You could skip class almost every day and still pass the quizzes if you did the reading.

          After history, Keith had English class. The teacher returned quizzes, and when Keith got his, he breathed a sigh of relief- he’d gotten a C+. It had mostly been vocabulary and grammar, stuff he could memorize.

          After English was Calculus. Easy stuff. Keith turned in his homework and got back a B+, and then he breezed through the notes and worksheet.

          The bell rang for lunch a little after noon. Feeling much better, Keith slung his backpack up onto his shoulder and headed for the cafeteria.

 

          Keith turned the last corner before the lunch room, and there was Lance, leaning against the wall, looking right at him. Keith stopped cold, and Lance straightened up and pushed off of the wall. He started trotting over.

          Keith stayed where he was. Why was _Lance_ here? He didn’t have third lunch, which meant he was cutting class right now. Granted, he skipped a lot, but why was he still in the school? He normally went to the park or a pool or something when he skipped. It made him less likely to get caught.

          As soon as he reached Keith, Lance inhaled like he was going to say something, but after a second, he just blew out the air. They stood there awkwardly for a minute.

          Finally, Keith’s impatience overcame his guilt at having to face Lance. He crossed his arms and scowled. “What is it?”

          Instantly Lance blurted, “ _I’m sorry!_ ”

          Keith could only blink in surprise. Luckily, he didn’t have to think of a response- now that Lance had started, he couldn’t seem to stop.

          “I’m sorry I’ve been doing stuff that bothered you,” Lance said quickly, like he was afraid Keith would stop him before he could finish. “I would’ve stopped if I’d known, I _swear._ I mean, I know I kind of bother you a lot, because we argue all the time, but I didn’t know it really _bothered_ you, I thought you were okay with it, and I _swear_ if I’d known-”

          “Lance,” Keith interrupted, “Calm down. It’s all right.”

          “No, it’s _not._ ” Lance crossed his arms. He only crossed his arms when he needed a shield between him and everything else- when he was nervous, or scared. “I feel like jerk, and it’s worse that I didn’t _know_ I was being a jerk, and I’m sorry, okay? So can we please stop the- the weirdness? Or whatever’s going on? Please?”

          Keith blinked. _Lance_ was apologizing? Why was _Lance_ apologizing? “Wait, I thought _you_ were mad at _me._ ”

          “What? No! What made you think that?”

          “You sat at the front of the bus.” Saying it loud made Keith feel childish, but it was the truth.

          “You were practically hiding,” Lance replied. “I figured you didn’t want me to!”

          Keith felt his face warm. Maybe he had kind of been sending mixed signals. He could see how Lance could’ve gotten the impression he wanted to be left alone. And really, it wasn’t that he’d _wanted_ to be left alone, it was more that he’d _felt_ like he should be. He’d felt like a jerk and he hadn’t wanted to face anybody, especially Lance.

          “I’m sorry,” was all he could think of to say. “I guess it really was my fault.”

          Lance looked panicked. “No, that’s not what I-”

          Keith cut him off again. “Lance, just listen to me, okay? I shouldn’t have said what I did. I didn’t mean any of it. I’m fine with all the stuff you do.”

          “You are?”

          “Yeah. It’s completely fine.”

          Lance’s brow furrowed. “Then why did you say it wasn’t?”

          “Because…” _Because I was feeling low, and the easiest way to build yourself up is to tear someone else down, and you just happened to be there._ “I don’t know.” Keith ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know why. But you don’t have to apologize. I’m the one who should be saying sorry.”

          Lance didn’t seem to have a reply for that. “…Okay,” he said at last.

          “So, we’re cool?”

          A slow grin spread across Lance’s face. “All right. Should we go get lunch?”

          “It’s not your lunchtime.”

          “When has that ever stopped me?”  
          The conversation went on like that, perfectly calm, until they reached the table where Shiro- the only other person in their group with Third Lunch- was sitting. “Hi, Keith,” he said when they were close enough. “Lance, aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

          “Nah,” Lance said, a bald-faced lie. Shiro sighed, and Keith hid a grin as he took a seat on the end. Before he could even take out his lunch, though, Lance walked around to the end and said, “Scoot over.”

          Keith looked up. “No, this is my seat.”

          “I always sit on the end, though.”

          “Maybe during your lunch period.”

          “Aw, come on! Can’t you scoot over just a little?”

          “ _You_ come on! Just sit somewhere else! You’re not even supposed to be here!”

          Shiro watched their argument, his eyes flicking back and forth like he was watching a tennis match. “I’m glad to see you two are getting along normally again,” he commented.

          Neither of them heard him- they were entirely absorbed in each other. And Shiro was fine with that. Lance and Keith had been messing up the whole group with whatever had been going on that morning. Now that they were arguing again, things seemed to be back to normal.

         

           At the end of the day, Lance followed Keith to the back of the bus and sat in the next to him- Keith decided he’d never take that for granted ever again. They’d met up outside the school, and Lance had started talking about something that happened in his chemistry class: apparently somebody’s sleeve caught fire while they were using Bunsen burners. Keith was barely listening, but he took a second to wonder why the fire alarms hadn’t gone off.

          The conversation petered out after that, and neither of them spoke for a moment. But if was obvious from the way Lance was fidgeting that he wanted to ask something.

Finally, Keith sighed. “What is it?”

Lance’s knee bobbed. He looked around as if making sure nobody else was listening, and then he lowered his voice to ask, “What I heard yesterday… does that happen a lot?”

          Keith didn’t reply right away. In fact, he thought about not replying at all, but one look at Lance’s expression changed his mind. Lance was genuinely concerned.

          The truth came easiest. “Once every couple of weeks,” Keith admitted. “It’s worse when it’s just us- when my mom’s there, I can just focus on talking to her, and she mediates sometimes.”

          Lance’s brow furrowed. “You sound pretty casual about it. How long has it been going on?”

          “I dunno. A few years, maybe. It’s gotten worse since I started high school and my grades started going down.”  
          “Has he ever…” Lance hesitated. “Has he ever hit you?”

          “He threatened to once. When I was younger. But no, he’s never actually hit me.”

          “Oh.” Lance looked troubled.

          “Look, don’t worry about it.” Keith glanced out the window and saw that they were approaching Lance’s stop. “And, I forgot to tell you, but thanks for covering for me earlier. When the others asked what was wrong.”  
          Lance bumped his shoulder against Keith’s. “Hey, I’ll cover for you any time. And…  whenever that happens, or anytime you need a place to go, just call me, okay?” The bus started to slow down as it approached his stop. He shifted his grip on his backpack, preparing to stand up. “Or you can text me. I’ll come pick you up. We can go to my house, or the park, or wherever you want to go. I can even make up an excuse for you, or something.”

          Keith shook his head. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “My dad would probably come to get me.”

          “Let him.” Lance put an arm around Keith’s shoulders and hugged him. “He’ll have to go through me first. And my mom and dad, too probably. We’ve got you covered, Keith, don’t you worry.”

          Keith gave a thin smile. “I don’t know if I’ll ever take you up on that. But thanks, Lance.”

          “Anytime.”

          And then Lance smiled and bumped his shoulder, and then he got up and got off the bus.

          Keith watched him walk away through the window, and as the bus pulled away, he found himself smiling at Lance’s retreating back. _I am royally fucked,_ he realized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I really hate stories where the entire plot could be resolved if people just stopped to talk for a second. There are more interesting plots to explore. 
> 
> Lance stepped up, so let's see if Keith can follow his example.
> 
> Yet again, thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta-ing and helping me with the title! And also with some of the dialog because I have trouble writing arguments. Maybe a Klance fic wasn't the brightest idea...


	3. The Gang's All Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's maybe a little slow but I promise the next one will make up for it

          It rained the next morning. Keith had run out to door early to avoid another talk with his dad, and he’d forgotten to grab an umbrella. So he hunched his shoulders against the rain and hid as best he could under a tree near the bus stop.

          When the bus finally pulled up, Keith bolted onto the bus and made his way to the back, where he plopped down in a seat and took stock. His backpack was pretty wet, but everything inside seemed undamaged except for his lunch. He normally packed it in a paper bag, and the bag was wet enough that it was starting to fall apart.

          Irritated, Keith dumped his lunch out in his backpack and crumpled up the soggy paper. What a perfect start to the day.

          When Lance got on and sat down next to Keith, the first words out of his mouth were, “Dude! What happened to your face?”

          Keith had a bruise on the outer edge of his right eye, where another red belt had clipped him while they’d been sparring at the dojo the night before. The sparring gear protected Keith’s teeth and torso in a fight, more or less, but the eyes and nose? Not so much. “Sparring,” Keith explained. “Got distracted.”

          In truth, Keith had been distracted (read: _thinking about Lance_ ) for two whole matches before the one where he missed a step and barely avoided getting socked directly in the nose. _That_ would’ve been fun to explain.

          Next to him on the bus, Lance visibly relaxed. “Oh. Okay. That’s good. I mean, not _good,_ but-”

          “Lance,” Keith interrupted. “You can’t start freaking out every time I have a bruise. You never did before, and if you start doing it now, everybody’s going to start getting suspicious. Bruises happen in martial arts,”

          “I keep forgetting you do karate,” Lance said.

          “I _don’t_ ,” Keith told him for what must’ve been the eightieth time. “I do tae kwon do. They are _not_ interchangeable.”

          “Pff, whatever. Same difference.”

          Keith rubbed his forehead, wondering, _Why the hell do I like this idiot?_

          After that, Keith put in earbuds to have an excuse not to talk to him anymore. It was too early in the morning to deal with this. Lance, thank god, apparently had math homework to do. He pulled it out and started scribbling answers as Keith watched out of the corner of his eye. Over three-quarters of his answers were wrong. Keith didn’t say anything.

         

Inside the school, as they approached the bench where the group met, Lance suddenly stopped Keith and pulled him to the side.

          “What are you doing?” Keith asked flatly.

          “Shh!” Lance peered down the hall, towards where the group normally met up.

          Shiro and Allura sat at the bench by themselves; Pidge and Hunk were nowhere to be seen. Maybe their buses were late, or maybe they were in tutoring, or something. Whatever the reason, Shiro and Allura were taking advantage of the relative privacy. They sat close to each other, with Shiro’s arm around Allura, basically cuddling.

          “What?” Keith asked, and then he noticed Lance’s crestfallen expression. “Wait, I thought you already got over Allura.” He glanced over at the happy couple. “I mean, she’s dating Shiro, and I don’t see _that_ breaking up anytime soon.”

          “I know,” Lance replied dejectedly. “But it’s not like I can just make it go away. It’s not that simple.”

          _You have no idea._ “You want me to go over to them?” Keith asked. “They’ll break it up as soon as they see me.”

          Lance didn’t reply, but Keith had already stepped back into the open and strode over. “Hey, guys,” he said when he was within earshot.

          Shiro and Allura immediately separated. There was nothing frantic about it; they just calmly scooted away from each other. “Hello, Keith,” Allura said, smiling. “You’re by yourself?”

          “Lance is right behind me,” Keith told them, turning and pointing him out so he would have no choice but to join them. Keith was _not_ going to third-wheel it until Pidge and Hunk showed up.

          Awkwardly Lance stepped out of his sad excuse for a hiding spot and came over, taking a seat next to Keith. “Hey, guys,” he said, trying his best to sound casual. “What’s up?”

          As Shiro started to reply, Pidge and Hunk finally arrived. Keith had to wonder if they’d been hiding nearby, waiting for Keith and Lance to show up. Pidge had no stomach for anything even remotely mushy, and Hunk would probably have thought Shiro and Allura were too sweet to interrupt.

          “Hi, how are you guys doing?” Hunk said as he took a seat. Pidge sat down on the bench on Allura’s other side and opened their laptop, pulling their headphones up over their ears. They hadn’t said anything, but it was clear that they intended to keep Shiro and Allura in line, if only be being present.

          “We’re doing good, Hunk, how are you?” Shiro smiled. Neither he nor Allura seemed at all irritated at having been interrupted and then chaperoned.

          The conversation wandered, and Keith stopped listening. Instead he discreetly watched Lance, who had tried and failed to bury himself in his phone. It was probably tough for him, seeing Allura and Shiro being so mushy. On one hand, you had to be happy for them- they were so comfortable with each other. On the other, seeing that she fit so well with someone else had to sting a little. And it was probably worse knowing that the object of your affections had found somebody perfect for them, and that that someone wasn’t you.

          Keith decided to try to involve Lance in the conversation, if only to distract him. But before he could think of anything to say, Shiro glanced at Allura and sat up a little.

          “You have glitter in your hair,” he noted, brushing his fingers through the ends of it and pulling his hand back sparkling.

          “Bath bomb?” Hunk wanted to know.

          “Yes.” Allura looked at Shiro and put a hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh. “It’s on you, too.”

          “What?” He looked down. “Oh.” He started trying to brush himself off. Allura helped, practically giggling. Really, they were just spreading the glitter evenly between themselves. Some of it went on the floor and the bench. Keith noticed some floating towards him and quickly scooted away.

          Pidge watched, deadpan, for a full thirty seconds before finally speaking up. “Would you two get a room? You’re embarrassing Lance.”

          Shiro gave Pidge a dry look, but the effect was ruined because his entire face had gone bright red. “Oh, we're bothering _Lance,_ huh?”

          They really were, of course, but Shiro didn’t know that. Keith shot another quick look at Lance and decided to intervene. “Hey, I’m gonna go get something out of the vending machine. Lance, you want to come with?”

          Lance looked up and blinked. He looked around at the others, and then blinked again. “Uh, sure.”

          “Wait,” Hunk said as they were getting to their feet. He fished a dollar bill out of his backpack and handed it to Keith. “Would you get me a Twix?”

          “Sure,” Keith told him, and without another word, walked away with Lance on his heels.

          The nearest vending machine was around the corner- far enough away to talk without any of the others overhearing. But neither one of them said anything as Keith fed the dollar into the machine and punched in the number for a Twix bar. He hadn’t really wanted anything from the vending machine; he’d just wanted an excuse to get Lance some space.

          Lance was the first one to speak. “I guess I kind of seem like an idiot, huh?”

          Keith glanced over. “Not really.”

          “Seriously? I want to date a girl who’s already dating one of my best friends.” Lance rubbed his forehead. “How does that _not_ make me an idiot? Or an asshole? I mean, I’d rather be an idiot than an asshole.”

          _You sort of flip between the two._ That was Keith’s instinctive response, but he barely managed to keep from saying it out loud. This wasn’t really the time. “I don’t think it makes you either,” he told Lance instead. “You said it yourself- it’s not like you can just make it go away.”

          Lance sighed and put his forehead against the side of the vending machine with a quiet _thump._ He didn’t say anything, or hit his head against the side again. He just stood there.

Keith patted his shoulder. “I know the feeling, buddy.”

          There was a pause, and then Lance sighed. “I think I’m gonna bail. Can you, like, tell them I went to the bathroom, or something?”

          “Sure.” Keith cracked a smile. “I’ve got you covered.”

          Then Lance grinned at him, and Keith felt his smile waver. _Boy, do I know the feeling._

 

          The rest of school was uneventful. Keith went to his classes, aced a calc quiz, and bombed a chapter test on _A Tale of Two Cities_ because he still couldn’t figure out what the hell the blue fly had to do with anything important.

          Then he went home. Both of his parents were still at work, so he had a few blissful hours of having the house to himself. He spent them watching a horror movie in the living room by himself.

          His mom got home around four o’clock and started dinner. Keith turned off the TV and escaped upstairs, knowing that his dad would be home in less than half an hour. He tried to work on his homework, but after fifteen minute he gave up and checked his texts. Nothing.

          “Dinner!” His mom called up the stairs.

          Keith’s parents talked about their day. His dad asked him how his English quiz had gone.

          “Uh…” Keith pushed his food around on his plate, debating with himself: tell the truth, or risk a lie? A lie could get him in worse trouble. He was a terrible liar. He lowered his head and mumbled, “I didn’t do so great.”

          “A little louder?” his dad requested, turning his head like he was hard of hearing.

          Keith took a deep breath and put his fork down, glaring at his plate. “I probably bombed it, okay?” he said, louder than he’d meant to. Under his breath he added, “Just like all the other ones.”

          His parents shared a look, and then put down their utensils. “Keith,” his mom began, but his dad took over immediately.

          “We’re worried, Keith,” he said. “Keith- look at me.”

          Reluctantly Keith lifted his gaze.

          His dad put his elbows on the table and sat forward. “We just want you to be the best that you can. Is something keeping you from doing well? Is someone bothering you? Are you being bullied?”

          “No,” Keith replied. Best to keep the responses short.

          “Is this some influence from your friends? Are you doing badly on purpose? Because failing your classes is the _cool_ thing to do?”

          Keith’s fists clenched under the table. “That’s not it.”

          “Would you do better if we removed some distractions?” he asked, and Keith’s mom looked at him sharply. He didn’t notice, continuing, “If we took away your cell phone, would that let you focus on school?”

          There was a pause. Keith stared at him. He was threatening to take away his _phone?_ Did he actually think that would _help?_ If he didn’t have his phone, he wouldn’t be able to talk to anybody.  
          Keith’s mom cleared her throat. “Can we talk in the other room?” she asked her husband.

          “Later,” he replied. “We need to do this now.”

          Keith’s mother frowned and leaned toward him a little, murmuring, “United front, remember?”

          But Keith’s dad wasn’t having it. “Keith, if that’s what it takes, we _will_ confiscate your phone.” He sat back and sighed, shaking his head at Keith as if he’d disappointed him. “I just don’t understand. What happened? Why are you failing all of a sudden?”

          “I’m doing my best,” Keith mumbled, looking away again. He couldn’t seem to even look at his dad for very long.

          “Apparently you need to do better _._ ”

          Keith just sat there for a second, his eyes on the table, his mind blank. He had a strange feeling- the anger and disbelief felt like a physical force, a pressure pushing outward on his mind, filling all the space, blocking out anything and everything else.

          Then one thought floated through where nothing else could: he realized he needed to get out of here.

          Wordlessly he pushed his chair back and stood, turning away and heading for the door. He didn’t stomp; he’d learned early on that that just got him in more trouble. He focused on keeping his breathing steady.

          “Keith, come back here,” his dad said. “We’re not finished talking to you.”

          “I’m going for a walk,” Keith replied without turning around.

          His mom spoke up. “Take your cell phone, please.”

          He already had his phone in his pocket. He walked outside without stopping for anything, calmly shutting the door behind himself. Then he stepped off the porch, and the chilly wind hit him. It triggered something, some thought that maybe walking out of the house at night by himself wasn’t the best idea. Especially without a jacket.

          But he wasn’t willing to go back inside. Not even for a jacket. Instead he started away down the street, straight into the wind. He made a split-second decision and turned a corner at the end of the block, heading for the neighborhood park.

          Predictably, the place was deserted. There was one floodlight on next to the playground, throwing long, stark shadows across the gravel. The swings creaked, gently swinging back and forth in the wind.

          Keith pulled out his phone and sat in the gravel behind the play structure, out of the wind. He called Pidge first, knowing they would still be awake and figuring they’d be totally fine with hanging out after dark in a creepy playground. The phone rang for a minute, and then there was a click. “Hello. You’ve reached Pidge. I can’t come to the phone right now.”

          Somewhere in the background of the recording, Lance laughed and said, “You sound like a robot!”

          “Shut up, Lance,” was Pidge’s reply. They went on, “Please leave your name and number, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

          There was a clatter and some static, like somebody grabbed the phone, and then Lance’s voice- a lot louder: “I swear this isn’t an automated system, Pidge only _sounds_ like a Transformer!”

          “Lance, give me my phone!” Pidge protested, and there was more clattering, and then a beep. Keith hung up without saying anything.

          He pulled his knees up to his chest and stared at his phone for a minute. It was getting cold, but he didn’t really have many options. Hunk would probably be watching TV with his parents right about now. Shiro was most likely hanging out at Allura’s house. While Keith knew Allura would invite him over if he called, having company wasn’t worth being a third wheel. He didn’t want to make them break it up twice in one day.

          Seeing no other options, he called Lance.

          He picked up after only one ring. “What’s up?”

          Keith hesitated, wondering how to explain himself.

          “Hello?” Lance asked. His tone had changed a little- he sounded cautious, maybe a little suspicious.

 _Say something before he hangs up._ Keith managed to clear his throat and say, “Hi. It’s Keith.” He was so cold he was starting to shiver. He did his best to keep his voice steady.

          “Yeah, I know. Caller ID. What’s up? You need something?”

          “I, um…” Keith looked around. “I’m at Red Deer Park. I kind of… walked out? Of my house? And… I don’t really want to go back. Right now.” He ran a hand through his hair, wishing he’d taken the time to figure out what he was going to say _before_ he dialed, rather than after.

          “You want to come over to my house?” Lance asked without missing a beat.

          Keith breathed a sigh of relief. “Your family won’t mind?”

          “Nah. There have been, like, three family friends in and out of here since this afternoon. They might not even notice you. Wait there, I’ll come pick you up.”

          “Okay,” Keith said, but Lance had already hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter was basically a long transition to Keith actually calling Lance.
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta and helping me when I got stuck in a couple of places!


	4. Movie Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations are available as hovertext and also in the end notes!

          Waiting for Lance was almost worse than just sitting by himself. Every time a car went by, Keith sat up straighter and watched it until it had passed the entrance to the parking lot. Then he slouched again and waited for the next one. He wrapped his arms around his ankles and put his chin on his knees, trying to keep as much body heat as he could.

          Finally, after probably ten minutes, an old-ish car that was making a weird rattling sound slowed and turned into the parking lot. Keith fought the urge to hide- he’d evidently been watching too many spy movies. Somewhere at the back of his mind, a voice chided that he’d never seen this car before, and that he had no way of telling whether it was Lance or somebody else, so wanting to hide was perfectly rational. Maybe.

          He stayed still, watching as the car parked across three spaces and sat there, idling. After a moment the driver’s-side door opened and Lance got half out of the car. “You coming?” he called.

          Relieved, Keith headed over and slid into the passenger seat as Lance got back in and shut the door. “Thanks,” Keith said, blowing on his fingers and then putting them up to the vents on the dashboard. He resisted the urge to sigh in contentment. It was really warm in the car.

          Lance put the car in Drive, then glanced at Keith, and suddenly stopped and put the car back in Park again. “Dude, you were out here in a t-shirt? It’s _March._ ”  He started struggling out of the jacket he was wearing. Keith opened his mouth to protest, but Lance had already thrown the jacket into his lap. “Just put it on, man. Your lips are blue.”

          Gratefully Keith stuck his arms through the sleeves and pulled the zipper up to his chin. He couldn’t see it so well in the dark, but he could tell immediately that this was Lance’s favorite jacket- the one that was a weird greenish-brown color. It was a lot warmer than Keith had expected. And it smelled like Lance- like coffee and Old Spice, of all things. Of course Lance would wear Old Spice. Keith sighed quietly and put his head back against the seat, just enjoying it for a second.

          Once they were on the main road, Lance asked, “How come you walked all the way to the park and _then_ called me?”

          “At first I was planning to hang out with Pidge,” Keith replied slowly. “But they didn’t pick up the phone. And Shiro and Allura are probably hanging out with each other and Hunk is with his parents…”

          “Geez, so I was the last resort?” Lance glanced over at him.

          “More or less.” Keith rested his chin on his hand and looked out the window. “I guess I just didn’t want to sit in the park by myself.”

          Lance grinned. “What, you scared of being out alone at night?”

          “Yeah, right.” Keith rolled his eyes.

          “Aw, there’s nothing wrong with being afraid of the dark.”

          Keith scowled at him. “At least I didn’t spend two months of sophomore year too scared to go into the woods after we all watched _The Blair Witch Project_.”

          “Well-” Lance cut off, searching frantically for a response. “At least I don’t still listen to My Chemical Romance!”

  
          “Okay, what you’re trying there is called a Red Herring.”

          Lance gave him a weird look. “Huh?”

          “You’re arguing a point that has nothing to do with what we’re talking about.”

          “That’s not a thing.”

          “It’s definitely a thing. Look it up.”

          Without hesitation, Lance picked up his phone from the cup holder and started typing. Keith immediately snatched the phone out of his hand. “What the _hell_ are you doing?” he snapped.

          “You told me to look it up!”

          “Not while you’re _driving!"_

          “Oh, come on, we’re already at my house, anyway!” Lance pulled into a driveway and turned the car off. Then he grabbed the phone out of Keith’s hand and opened Wikipedia. After a second he said, “Huh.”

          Keith eyed the screen to make sure he’d gotten the name right. “See? I told you it’s a thing.”

          “Whatever.” Lance got out of the car and waited for Keith to follow suit so he could lock the doors.

          As he got out, it took Keith a second to realize exactly how big the house was. He’d actually never been to Lance’s house before- they normally hung out as a group at Pidge or Shiro’s houses, or at one of the parks near their school.

          Lance’s house was at least twice the size of Keith’s, with two stories or maybe even three. It had a steep roof and lots of windows, and a porch with a storm door in front of the wood-and-glass one. There were lights in most of the windows.

          “Whoa,” Keith breathed. “This is your _house?_ ”

          “It _is_ pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Lance crossed his arms, grinning. “I mean, my family’s been living here for, like, three generations. My mom’s dad was the architect who designed it.” He lifted his chin when he added this.  
           

          “Right.” Keith knew all this already. Lance had told him at least six times- he’d always been pretty proud of the place, and Keith understood why. It _was_ pretty cool. The longest Keith had ever lived in one place was four years, between when he was six years old and when he was ten. He couldn’t imagine living a house where your family had been for _three generations._

          “Come on, let’s go inside before I freeze to death.” Lance was already standing on the porch, opening the storm door. Keith trotted up the stone stairs and followed Lance inside.

          Before Keith had even stepped inside, two dogs appeared in the entryway: one that looked like a golden retriever with brown fur, and one that looked like a cross between a German Shepherd and a corgi. Lance crouched down to rub the dogs’ heads, saying, “Hey, guys! How’s it going?” Then he stood back up and called, “Mamá, estoy en casa! Traje Keith conmigo, es mi amigo que tiene un culo muy lindo pero no lo sabe .”

“Hola, Keith,” came a woman’s voice from another room. Then, after a pause, “ ¿Habla Español?”

“No,” Lance replied.

“Oh. I’ll use English.” She made the switch effortlessly. “Has he eaten dinner?”

          Lance turned to Keith, who had been trying to follow along with his dim memories of Spanish class from eighth grade. But he’d only managed to catch “friend” and “no,” which had him a little worried.

          “Have you eaten dinner?” Lance asked.

          “I understood that part, and yeah, I have,” Keith replied. “But what did you guys say before-”

          Lance turned away and called, “He said yeah.”

          A woman appeared in the doorway next to the front stairs. She was nearly half a head shorter than Lance, and her skin was almost as pale as Keith’s and her hair was brown and curly. “Hello,” she said, “It’s been a while, Keith.” Judging by the voice, she had to be Lance’s mother.

 _They don’t look much alike._ “Hi,” Keith told her. “Thanks for letting me come over.”

          “Oh, it’s no trouble- what’s one more in the house? You can go ahead and make yourself at home. Just watch out for Jacob, he likes to sit on people’s laps and he hasn’t figured out that he’s too big for that.” Then she grinned, and Keith saw the family resemblance.

          “Who’s Jacob?” Keith asked, but she had already left. He looked at Lance and repeated, “Who’s Jacob?”

          “That’s Jacob.” Lance indicated the brown dog. “The other one’s Shepard.”

          Keith tried to pet Jacob, but the dog turned and wandered away with the corgi right behind him. Keith straightened and cleared his throat. “So, now what?”

          “I dunno. What do you want to do?”

          Damn it. Keith had been hoping not to have to make any more decisions. “…I don’t know,” he said after a minute. “I just want to sit for a while, I guess. I’ve kind of had a rough day.”

  
          “All right. I think the family room’s empty.”

          Keith knew which room it was- a small sitting room off of the entryway. He found it and sat down on the couch, and after a second, he sat forward to put his head in his hands. The couch cushions shifted as Lance sat down beside him.

          They were silent for less than a minute before Lance started getting restless. His knee started to bob. Ten seconds later he asked, “So, what happened?”

          Keith let his hands drop and sighed. “My dad was bugging me about my grades again. And he said some stuff that just…” He stopped and sat back against the couch, putting his head back to stare up at the blank ceiling.

          “Do you ever just get so mad you can’t think?” he asked after a moment. “Not, like, blinding rage, or anything, but just- you’re so mad, and you can’t let it out, and- and you can’t think, and you just feel like…” He trailed off, trying to come up with a way to describe it.

          “Like your mind is a block of cheese?” Lance suggested.

  
          “ _Yes!_ ” Keith exclaimed, sitting up. “I don’t know why that fits, but it does! How did you come up with that?”

          Lance shrugged. “I dunno. And yeah, I’ve had the feeling before.”

          Keith wouldn’t have thought so- Lance seemed pretty happy-go-lucky- but the last few days had revealed a lot about Lance that Keith had never noticed in the four years he’d known him.

          He stayed silent for a moment, thinking. “Do you suppose…” Keith paused, wondering how to ask this. “Do you guys have a guest room, or something? Spare couch?”

          “Yeah, we’ve got a guest room,” Lance told him. “And my mom would be fine with you sleeping over, if that’s what you’re going for. People sleep over all the time.”

          “Thanks,” Keith muttered. Then, after a pause, “I better tell my parents.” He pulled out his phone and checked it. He had four missed texts and a missed call from his parents, mostly asking where he was and if he was all right. He texted his mom, _I’m at Lance’s house_

She replied immediately. _Are you okay?_

          _I’m fine. I’m sleeping over here_

_What’s Lance’s address?_

          He didn’t reply to that one, instead dropping his phone face-down on the table. “Are you sure your parents will be okay with me sleeping over?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t have any pajamas, so I’d have to sleep in my clothes…”

          “Dude, seriously. Nobody cares.”

          Keith sighed. “All right.” He paused and looked at Lance. “Have you already finished your homework?”

          Lance laughed, which could’ve been either a “yes,” a “no,” or an “I don’t do homework at home.”

          “Could I borrow some paper?” Keith asked. “I need to do my calc homework, at least. I haven’t even started it.”

          “Dude, you’re seriously going to do _homework? Now?_ ”

          “Yeah,” Keith said, a little irritated. “Just because I’m here doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying to pass my classes.”

          Lance scoffed, but he found Keith some paper and a pencil anyway, and let him borrow a laptop to find his homework online. He didn’t really have that much, but it took him way longer to finish than it normally would have because Lance plopped down on the couch next to him and pulled out his phone.

          This posed a problem. Keith found it _really_ hard to concentrate when Lance’s knee kept bumping against his every time either of them moved. And when Lance threw an arm over the back of the couch. And when he did basically anything else, including catching Keith’s attention to show him something he thought was funny on his Twitter feed. Which he did about every ten minutes.

          In the end, it was a long time before Keith finally finished his homework, and by that point he had the beginnings of a headache. He wrote the last answer, put the pencil down, and sat back. Immediately Lance perked up. “You done?”

  “No thanks to you,” Keith muttered. “So, now what? It’s…” He looked at the clock. “Nine thirty.” Too early to go to sleep.

          “We could play Mario Kart,” Lance proposed.

          “I’m not playing Mario Kart with you, you always pick Rainbow Road and spend the whole game falling off the track because you were trying to knock _me_ off.”

          Lance was quiet for a moment, tilting his head like he was listening. “Sounds like someone’s watching _El Orfanato_ in the living room,” he said slowly.

          “What?” Keith listened, but he could only hear faint noise through the walls.

          “ _El Orfanato_. The Orphanage. Creepy drama-thriller thing with ghosts. It’s in Spanish.”

          Keith grimaced. “You had me until the ‘it’s in Spanish’ part.”

          “Let’s just watch a different movie upstairs,” Lance decided, getting up from the couch.

          “What movie?” Keith asked, following him up to the main room on the second floor. Lance had referred to it as the “Media Room,” but really, it was just a ripped, worn couch and an old TV with huge speakers that had probably been made in the sixties. Keith dropped onto the couch while Lance selected a movie from the plastic bins in a nearby cabinet.

          “What are we watching?” Keith asked, leaning over to try and get a glimpse of the case, but Lance turned away to hide it.

          “You’ll see,” he replied, grinning.

          Keith sat back and waited as Lance put the DVD in and sat next to him, skipping through all the trailers with the remote. When the disc went to the main menu, Keith sat up and gave Lance an incredulous look. “Seriously? _The Princess Bride?_ ”

          “What? It’s a classic.” Lance hit ‘Play.’

          “So’s _Pride and Prejudice_ , but we’re not watching that.”

          “Hey, don’t knock Jane Austen. Especially not in front of my mom. Now shut up, I can’t hear the movie.”

          To tell the truth, Keith hadn’t actually seen _The Princess Bride_ before. All he knew was that there was a princess involved, as well as a dude named Indigo Montana, or something.  Parts of it were decently funny, he supposed, and the Man in Black seemed kind of cool. But the sword fight was just okay, and he didn’t really care about any of the characters. By the time the generic mayonnaise main couple had fled into the Fire Swamp, Keith was starting to nod off.

          Beside him, Lance yawned loud enough to catch Keith’s attention. “Hey, I’m not staying awake for this movie if you aren’t,” Keith warned.

          “I’m awake,” Lance said through another yawn.

          “No, you’re not.”

          “Just keep watching.”

          But Keith was too tired and too bored. He fell asleep on Lance’s shoulder before Buttercup and Wesley even got out of the swamp.

__________________________________________________ 

          Around eleven o’clock, Lance’s family had finished their movie and were heading upstairs. They came across the TV in the Media Room on the title screen of _The Princess Bride_ , and his mom stopped.

          “Ay, Lance, leaving the television on again.” Carmen sighed and hit the power button.

          One of Lance’s brothers suddenly snorted and tapped his mother on the shoulder. “Mamá,” he whispered, grinning. “Look.”

          Carmen looked. There on the couch, lying like he’d fallen asleep and then tilted over, was Lance. And lying there with him, his head on Lance’s chest and Lance’s hand on his back, was Lance’s “friend” Keith.

          Lance’s mother smiled. “Oh, aren’t they cute. It’s a shame to wake them up, but they’re going to hurt their necks, sleeping like that.” She gently shook Lance’s shoulder. “Lance, it’s late. You and Keith should go to your beds.”

          The movement woke Keith, who yawned and pushed himself on one elbow. He squinted. “What time is it?”

          “Too late for you to be on a couch,” she replied. “Go on to the guest room. It’s down the hall, the third door on the right.”

          Keith lurched to his feet and stumbled off, and Lance’s mother shook her son again to wake him up. “Lance. Go to bed.”

          Lance groaned and pushed himself into a more-or-less upright position. “Where’s Keith?” he mumbled.

          “He went to sleep, sweetie. You should, too.”

          As Lance got to his feet, his brother nudged him with his elbow. “Nice choice, hermanito. I approve.”

          “What?” Lance looked at him dully, really only half awake.

          His brother just shook his head and smiled. “Go to sleep, Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Mom, I’m home! I brought Keith with me, he’s my friend who has a really cute ass but doesn’t know it."  
> "Does he speak Spanish?"  
> "hermanito" basically means "little brother."
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta, and to my friend Claudia for editing my Spanish! I would've had to change Lance's phrasing without her.


	5. Stalling

          When Lance woke up in the morning, he was still in his clothes, which was weird. He normally slept in boxers. And he didn’t have a face mask on, either. Also weird. He _always_ slept with a face mask. How else could he keep his skin beautiful?

          He yawned and sat up, rubbing his eyes and trying to remember why he’d climbed into bed in his clothes. And with no face mask… Oh, right. He’d been watching a movie, and he must’ve fallen asleep, because he could just barely remember somebody waking him up and telling him to go to bed.

          Just as he was getting up, there was a knock on the door.

          “It’s unlocked,” Lance replied through a yawn.

          His mom opened the door and poked her head into the room. “Oh, good, you’re awake. Did you see your school’s tweet?”

          “I don’t follow the school Twitter,” Lance reminded her.

          “Oh, right.” She shrugged. “Your school’s closed today because of something about the fire alarms. There’s an announcement on the school website, go ahead and read it.”

          Once he’d skimmed the article on the site, Lance headed downstairs to eat breakfast. He found his mom in the kitchen with his older brother Jason. Jason was making scrambled eggs while his mom cut up an onion.

          “Morning,” Lance said through a yawn, pulling out a chair at the table. “What are you guys making?”

          “Breakfast,” Jason replied, pushing the spatula through the egg goo in the pan. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

          Lance squinted. “My what?”

          Jason glanced over his shoulder, saw Lance’s expression, and laughed. “Never mind.”

          Over at the counter, Lance’s mother finished chopping the onion and used the knife to scrape it into the pan with the eggs. “Lance, would you go wake Keith?” she said. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”

          “Keith?” Lance repeated, confused, before he suddenly remembered Keith had slept over. “Oh. Right.”

          He headed upstairs to the guest room and opened the door without knocking. Later, thinking back on it, he would realize that that probably hadn’t been the greatest idea. He could’ve _actually_ walked in on Keith in his underwear.

          But his luck held; Keith was still in bed. “G’morning, sunshine!” Lance said brightly, trotting over to the curtains and yanking them open. Morning sunlight streamed into the room.

          Keith groaned and rolled onto his side, pulling a pillow over his head to block out the light.

          “My mom made breakfast,” Lance told him, walking around the bed to stand next to Keith. “Come on, up and at ‘em.”

          Keith moved the pillow enough to give Lance a death glare. Then, abruptly, he sat up. “Wait, what time is it?”

          “Eight thirty.”

          “ _Eight_ _thirty?_ ” Keith scrambled out of bed, all but shoving Lance aside and diving for his socks and shoes. “ _What the hell_ , Lance? School started more than an _hour_ ago!”

          “Uh, that’s a negative,” Lance replied.

          Keith stopped in the middle of pulling one sock on. “What?”

          “School’s closed today.” Seeing Keith’s blank look, Lance went on, “You remember how I said someone’s sleeve caught fire in my class? Well the fire alarms were supposed to have gone off, and since they didn’t, the school district ran a test and found out most of the smoke detectors in the school actually don’t work. So the school’s closed until they get that fixed.”

          “Oh.” Keith sat back on his hands and breathed a sigh of relief, and it was only then that Lance finally realized Keith was wearing nothing besides his black skinny jeans.

          Of course _Keith_ had seen _Lance_ shirtless plenty of times- he came to swim meets pretty often- but at that moment, Lance suddenly realized he’d never seen _Keith_ shirtless.

          Keith’s chest was about as pale as Lance had expected, but he was actually more muscular than he looked with a shirt on. He wasn’t _ripped,_ or anything, but there was certainly some definition. It was actually a pretty nice view. _Those tae kwon do muscles,_ Lance thought to himself, watching Keith’s shoulders shift as he sighed and got to his feet.

          “…What are you looking at?” Keith asked suspiciously. Lance realized he’d been staring for way too long.

          “Uh, nothing.” Lance turned away and thanked God that his blush didn’t show. “See you in the kitchen.”

          Trotting down the stairs, Lance had wondered why he’d been staring. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen shirtless muscular guys before. He was on the _swim team._ He saw hot, soaking wet shirtless guys nearly every day, and he hadn’t really thought much about them since the first week. They were all pretty good-looking, but none of them were really his type. And sure, Lance joked around a lot, and he flirted with basically everyone, and of course he knew a fine ass when he saw one, but he’d never really considered _Keith._

          He stopped halfway down the stairs. Had he actually just had an “oh no, he’s hot” moment about Keith? Keith, who seemed like he was always grumpy about something? Keith, who could never take a joke? Keith, who once nearly broke Lance’s nose after the flying insults went a little too far? _Keith?_

          “Why are you standing on the stairs?”

          Lance jumped and whirled around. Keith stood at the top of the stairs, fully dressed and giving Lance a weird look. He had Lance’s jacket in one hand. Oh, right. He’d never given it back last night. Lance made his way to the bottom of the stairs and turned, waiting for Keith to reach him. Before he could say anything, though, Keith wordlessly handed him the jacket and continued through the doorway to the kitchen.

          At breakfast, Lance caught himself studying his friend a few times. He noticed new things, like how Keith had a tendency to tuck his hair behind his ears when it was getting in the way. And how the corners of his lips made him look like he was frowning even when he wasn’t. And how he had really long eyelashes, so long they cast shadows on his cheeks when he was looking down…

          …And how he’d lifted his head and he was staring back at Lance now….

          Lance cleared his throat and dropped his gaze again, but Keith put his fork on the table and sat up. “Lance, what’s going on?”

          “Nothing,” Lance said quickly. “Absolutely nothing.”

          Keith looked suspicious, but he didn’t repeat himself. Lance did his best to keep his eyes on his breakfast and tried to think about something else.

          Because, all right, even if he _was_ taking an interest in Keith after all this time, it wasn’t like romance would work out there. Sure, Keith liked guys, but that didn’t mean he was interested in every single guy he met. And it wasn’t like Lance was the sexiest man on Earth.

          He wasn’t the best at math, but even _he_ knew the odds weren’t great that Keith would be interested in him. It just wasn’t that easy.

          After thinking on it for a minute, Lance realized this crush on Keith really wasn’t a new thing. It was possible that he’d been interested in Keith for a while; he just hadn’t really registered it until now. He knew he’d spent an awful lot of time trying to one-up Keith, mostly because he wanted to impress him, just _once_. And he knew tended to make the dumbest jokes and puns around Keith, because he knew that Keith would groan, but he would give a little smile too.

         And Lance would do pretty much anything if he knew it would make Keith smile.

         Dear God, this had to be the worst crush he’d ever had.

         And then, sitting there at the breakfast table next to Keith, Lance suddenly remembered Jason grinning and asking, “ _Where’s your boyfriend?_ ”

         Oh, shit. Had Jason said anything like that to Keith while Lance wasn’t in earshot? Had he implied that Lance had said they were going out? Oh, man, was _that_ why Keith had stopped eating and was giving him a weird look again?

          “Lance?” Keith asked cautiously. “Seriously, are you okay? You look like you’re freaking out. And you’re acting really strange.”

          “I’m fine,” Lance managed- his voice sounded higher than normal. To avoid having to answer any more questions, he started shoveling his breakfast into his mouth.

          Over by the stove, Lance’s mom and brother exchanged grins.

          “So, Keith,” Lance’s mom said, “you and Lance have been friends for a while?”

          Keith sat back for a second, looking like he was carefully considering his next words. “We didn’t really get along at first,” he began, and Lance snorted. Keith scowled at him but went on. “But I guess we get along all right now. I mean, Lance did come pick me up last night. And I wanted to thank you for letting me stay over,” he added.

          “You’re welcome here any time,” Lance’s mother told him.

          “Thanks,” Keith said. Then, abruptly, his demeanor changed. His face fell, and his shoulders drooped. “I guess I should call one of my parents to come pick me up,” he mumbled.

          Lance had a moment of what he would only later realize was panic. He didn’t want Keith to leave yet! It would be, like, a whole day before they saw each other again! He still had stuff to work out! “I can drive you,” he volunteered quickly.

          Keith lifted his head, and he looked so grateful Lance had to look away. He wasn’t used to seeing Keith with anything besides a scowl, so this was a weird feeling.

          They stalled as long as possible, but by ten Lance was pulling out of the driveway with Keith in the passenger seat. It wasn’t very far to Keith’s house, so Lance wanted to get in as much talking as he could before he had to drop Keith off.

          “So,” he said, trying to think of something to talk about. Immediately he found an actual concern. “Are you gonna be all right?”

          Keith didn’t reply. He was looking out the window, his arms crossed and his shoulders hunched.

          “Keith?” Lance prompted. “You okay?”

          Keith shook his head, just once. He looked pale.

          Lance frowned. He had to do something about this. He couldn’t just drop Keith off in this state- the guy looked like he was going to prison.

          Without a word, Lance pulled over to the curb. Keith turned around to ask. “What are you doing?”

          Ignoring him, Lance put the car in park and turned to face him. “Let’s go out,” he said.

          Keith’s eyes widened. “ _What?_ ”

          It took Lance a second to realize how that had sounded. “Uh- I mean, school’s closed today, and you finished your homework, so let’s go hang out, or something. I can call up Pidge and Hunk and everybody. Group outing, y’know?” He mentally patted himself on the back. _Nice save._

          There was a pause. “I don’t know,” Keith said slowly. “I’ve already been out all night.”

          “Aw, come on, it wasn’t like you were partying! You fell asleep on a couch watching a chick flick!” Lance left out that Keith had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and that Lance had let him stay there. Out of the goodness of his heart, of course.

          Keith raised his stupid perfect eyebrows. “So you admit it’s a chick flick.”

          “I never said it wasn’t,” Lance replied, trying to drag his attention away from the _stupid. Perfect. Eyebrows._ “So? Group outing? What do you say?”

          There was a long silence. Keith frowned at the dashboard. Or, no- Lance realized he wasn’t really frowning. He just _looked_ like he was, because of the shape of his lips, and because his eyebrows drew together when he was thinking hard. Lance wondered what would happen if he leaned over and tilted Keith’s head up and kissed those stupid pouting lips…

          _Okay, no. Focus._ “Keith?” Lance asked, because he’d been silent for a few moments.

          Keith sighed. “Okay.”

          “Really?” Lance sat up straight.

          “Yeah. Let me just call my mom and tell her.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed. Lance waited anxiously as Keith waited a moment, and then said, “Hi, mom.”

          Lance could hear a voice from the other end of the line, but he couldn’t make out the words. “Yeah, I’m still fine,” Keith said. “No. No! God, mom, _no!_ ” His cheeks colored and he shot Lance a look out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah. Well, no, I’m just checking in, I was going to go hang out with Lance and everyone else. Where? Uh…” He looked at Lance.

          “Say we’re going to the arcade at the mall,” Lance whispered.

          “The… arcade at the mall?” Keith repeated, arching an eyebrow at Lance as he said it. “Yeah. I’ll be home by six. Yeah. No, Lance can drive me. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Bye.”

          Lance distinctly heard Keith’s mom say, “I love you,” but Keith pulled the phone away from his ear and ended the call without responding.

          “Seriously?” Keith asked. “The _arcade?_ I don’t play video games.”

          Lance shrugged. “If they go there and you’re not there, we’ll just say they must’ve gotten there after we left.”

          Keith sighed and put his head back against the seat, briefly shutting his eyes as if collecting himself. “All right,” he said after a moment, sitting up again and starting to type a number into his phone. “Let’s see who can go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys, I really love all the comments! I'm so glad people are enjoying this. *cough*anditskindofhelpingmyego*cough*
> 
> Is MCR going to be a running thing in this fic? Probably
> 
> I've been having some trouble getting motivated to write this past week (or doing anything really), and with this I've basically burned through my buffer. The next chapter might take a little longer than usual if it keeps up, but hopefully not. We'll see. ^_^
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta!


	6. Love and War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE COMMENTS I'M GETTING ON THIS GIVE ME LIFE SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS THANK YOU SO MUCH

          As it turned out, everybody could go. Nobody had plans- it was supposed to be a school day, after all- so the entire group agreed to meet up at the arcade in the mall. Shortly after they finished arranging a meetup time, Lance got a text from Pidge saying that their brother Matt had taken the car out somewhere. “I need a pickup,” they told him.

          “I got you,” Lance replied.

          Pidge’s house was way farther from the school than Lance’s or Keith’s, so it took a while to get there. Lance quickly tired of the silence and turned on the radio. Twangy country warbled out of the speakers, and he quickly changed the station. “Sorry,” he said as Keith eyed him. “My dad likes country. He drove the car last.”

          “I’m not judging,” Keith replied as he looked out the window again. “After all, I still listen to My Chemical Romance.”

          Lance frowned. “Wait, are you actually mad about that? I didn’t mean to-”

          “I’m not,” Keith interrupted. He left it at that.

          They rode in silence for a few minutes, listening to the top 40’s pop songs from a local station. After three songs, Lance shot another quick look at Keith out of the corner of his eye. He was still staring out the window.

          “Look, dude,” Lance said, “if you don’t really want to go, you don’t have to…”

          “I really do,” Keith replied. “I’m just…” He paused and gave Lance a searching look. “Never mind.”

          “What?”

          “Never _mind,_ Lance.”

          Neither of them spoke again until they reached Pidge’s house. Their friend was waiting on the porch steps, seemingly buried in their phone. But as soon as the car pulled up, Pidge got to their feet without tearing their attention from their phone. They walked over to the car and were about to open the passenger door when they finally glanced up and saw Keith. They paused, blinked, and then got into the backseat instead. “Keith? What are you doing here?”

          “I slept at Lance’s place last night,” Keith replied.

          “How come?”

          There was another pause. Keith was obviously scrambling for an explanation, so Lance took the liberty of lying for him yet again. “I was showing him this awesome movie and he fell asleep in the middle of it.”

          “What movie?” Pidge wanted to know.

          “ _The Princess Bride._ ”

          “Oh, okay. I can’t blame you for falling asleep during that one, Keith.”

          Keith hid a grin while Lance sputtered in indignation. “You two have no respect for the classics,” he said at last, and pulled out of the driveway without another word.

 

          They met up with Hunk, Shiro, and Allura outside the arcade. “Are we really going to play games in the arcade?” Allura asked as soon as the other group was in earshot. “It seems expensive.”

          “Nah,” Lance said. “I’ve got another idea. Come on.”

          He led them to a part of the mall that Keith didn’t even know existed- a sort of hallway to the right of the entrance to the JC Penny. There were only two things in the hallway: a glass door leading to an empty indoor pool, and a wide doorway with black and purple designs around it, and the word “SHADOWLAND” in orange neon lettering over the entrance.

          “Welcome to Shadowland,” Lance said, leading them inside. The entryway had a few café tables to the left, and old arcade games to the right. Directly in front of them was the front desk.

          “I didn’t even know this was _here,_ ” Keith commented, looking around.

          “Me either.” Pidge inspected what looked like a gumball machine full of little green aliens in plastic capsules. “I don’t know how Lance finds these places.”

          “It’s a gift,” Lance said. “Come on, we’ve gotta pay and stuff.” He led the others to the counter and handled the interactions with the teenager behind the counter. “It’s twelve bucks for two games,” he reported, and everyone started pulling out their money. Except for Keith. He reached for his jacket pocket and then remembered he didn’t have his jacket. “Shit,” he swore under his breath. He was turning to the others to say he was going to sit the games out, but Shiro spoke first.

          “I’ll take care of your share,” Shiro told him. “Don’t worry about it.”

          “I’ll pay you back,” Keith promised, and Shiro just shrugged.

          They all got laser vests assigned, although they got to choose their own codenames. Lance made himself “Lancelot,” which Keith was pretty sure wasn’t a word. Pidge chose “Pidgeon Gun.” Hunk picked “Hunka Love.” Allura was “Zelda.”

          Shiro and Keith were the only ones who had trouble thinking of names. Pidge suggested “Guyliner” for Shiro, which was the name he ultimately went with. There were a few different suggestions for Keith, ranging from “The Firelord” to “Nico di Angelo” to simply “Mullet.” He eventually went with an idea of his own, but he kept the others from seeing it and refused to tell them.

          “You’ll see it on your laser after I shoot you,” he told Lance.

          Keith had been expecting a free-for-all, but instead they somehow ended up doing teams, green and blue. Allura, Keith, and Hunk were on the blue team. Pidge, Lance, and Shiro were on the green.

          “This is gonna be awesome,” Lance said, lifting his gun and grinning. “I’m the laser tag _king._ ”

          Allura eyed him and smirked. “We’ll see about that.”

          They were the only people there, so they got the whole arena to themselves. Keith jogged up a ramp to the catwalks, hoping to find a good vantage point to start from. But there wasn’t a lot of cover, and the arena wasn’t all that big. A voice from somewhere up above them started counting down. Keith took a deep breath and lifted his gun, waiting for the count to hit zero.

          Then, as soon as it did, his vest abruptly started blinking. “What the-” He looked back and saw Shiro standing behind him, just lowering his gun.

          “Sorry,” Shiro said, but the grin on his face didn’t make him seem very apologetic. “You should watch your back.”

          Instead of replying, Keith turned and ran. From there, the battle was more or less a blur. He saw Allura hit Lance quite a few times. He never saw Pidge, but he kept getting shot by them. When they trotted out of the arena after the timer went off, Keith had to figure he’d lost at least as many points as Allura had gained. Pidge came in first and the blue team lost, but as it turned out, Keith wasn’t quite in last place. _Shiro_ was.

          “He couldn’t really bring himself to tag anybody,” Pidge muttered to Keith as they were heading back in for the last round.

          “He tagged _me,_ ” Keith pointed out.

          “Yeah. Once. Because he was standing three feet behind you for thirty seconds and you never noticed him.”

          Keith blinked. “Oh.”

          At the start of the next round, Keith noticed Lance duck behind a wall up on a catwalk. He didn’t think anything of it until, ten minutes later, he got tagged and looked up just in time to see Lance disappearing behind the same wall he’d been hiding behind at the start of the game. “You camping asshole!” Keith called up.

          “It’s a legitimate strategy!” came Lance’s reply. Then he yelped; Hunk had tagged him from across the arena.

          “That’s what you get!” Keith called up. He looked around and saw Allura sneaking up behind Shiro. He finally noticed her when she was right behind him, and he whirled around. Before he could get his gun up, though, Allura hooked her fingers into the front of his vest, pulled him forward, and planted a kiss on his lips. Then she let go, and while Shiro was still blinking in surprise, she lifted her laser shot him point-blank in the chest.

          “Hey!” He protested as she jogged away, laughing.

          “That’s cheating!” Lance called from his camping site. “No physical contact in the arena!” Then he ducked behind the wall to keep from getting shot by Hunk again.

          “All’s fair in love and war!” Allura called over her shoulder.

 

          Up on the catwalk, Lance noticed Keith standing and laughing near a pillar. He raised his laser and shot at Keith, but missed. Keith shut up and ducked behind a wall, out of sight. Lance sighed and was looking around for another target when he noticed Hunk barreling up the catwalk on his right, laser raised.

          Lance yelped and made a run for it. The only way to go was down to the first floor, so he sprinted down the ramp and ducked behind a pillar. He poked his head out and spotted a third set of blinking lights on the third floor. That had to be Pidge. Where had they _been?_ He hadn’t seen them at _all_ during the last game.

          Suddenly Allura stepped out from behind a wall and spotted him. “Got you!” she shouted, shooting at him. He turned to run, but he felt his vest buzz- she’d hit him. He kept running anyway. There had to be a way up to the catwalks somewhere over here. He whipped around a corner-

          And crashed into someone. The other person was shorter, but they’d apparently been running faster; Lance found himself slammed backwards into a wall as he and the other person grabbed each other to try and stay upright. It was a second before they managed to steady themselves.

          “Sorry, are you oh…kay…” Lance trailed off when Keith looked up at him and blinked owlishly. They both froze and stared at each other. Keith’s face was flushed from running, and up close, his dark eyes looked huge. Lance’s heart hammered. Like this, it would be way too easy to just tilt his head and lean down a little and…

          Abruptly the pressure holding him against the wall let up- Keith had stepped back and raised his laser gun. Lance snapped out of his catatonia too late to avoid getting shot directly in the chest.

          His vest buzzed, and he looked down to see Keith’s codename flashing at the end of his laser.

          MCR LIVES

          He looked up again, gaping. Keith smirked. Then, without a word, he turned and jogged away.

          Blue team won that time. Even Pidge couldn’t keep up with Allura when she was determined to win. She ended up in first place, too.

          They trotted out of the laser tag place in a great mood, and paused to decide what to do next. Lance suggested they go see a movie.

          “Star Wars,” Pidge said immediately. Their tone implied that there would be absolutely no discussion.

          And there wasn’t. They all sat through the Star Wars movie, ignoring how Pidge and Hunk kept muttering under their breath about what in the movie didn’t make sense. When the pilot first showed up, Lance whistled, and Shiro reached over and clapped a hand over his mouth, telling him, “Nope, not doing that.”

          Halfway through the movie, Keith’s phone went off and he jumped so hard he nearly fell out of his seat. Lance stifled a laugh as he watched Keith scramble to pull out his phone and turn it off.

          After the movie, they ended up going to some frozen yogurt place Allura and Lance had been to before. Lance liked the place because it was weird- some of the seats were just large, pastel-colored plastic balls with flat bottoms and butt-shaped imprints to sit on. Others looked like weird, futuristic spinning chairs. The rest were plain white plastic benches. Lance decided to sit on one the butt-imprint balls because he thought they were hilarious. The downside of this was that he was about a foot lower to the ground than anyone else. He wouldn’t have cared so much if Keith didn’t keep grinning every time he looked over.

          “What are you looking at?” Lance demanded reflexively when Keith looked at him and snorted for the fifth or sixth time.

          “I just can’t… get over you,” Keith said, obviously suppressing laughter. “Your knees are up by your shoulders and I just…” He put his yogurt down and hunched over in his seat, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. Lance watched him, wanting to do _something,_ because dammit, this was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.

          Allura glanced between him and Keith, and abruptly cleared her throat. “Shiro, can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked, getting up.

          Shiro blinked up at her. “Uh… okay, sure.” He followed her outside the shop. Lance frowned, wondering what was up.

          Keith was shaking his head, still laughing. “I can’t… I’ve got to go get some water,” he managed, getting to his feet and heading for the back of the store. Hunk, for some reason, eyed Lance and then followed.

          As soon as they were out of earshot, Pidge asked Lance, “Seriously, what’s going on with you?”

          “Nothing,” Lance said. “Nothing at all.”

          Pidge rolled their eyes. “I’m not blind, Lance, I can tell something’s up with you. You’re acting really weird again. But, like, different from when you saw Keith in his underwear.”

          Oh, god, why were they bringing that up  _now?_  “It’s nothing like that,” he said, feeling his face heat.

          “All right, so what is it?”

          There was a long silence. Lance eyed Shiro and Allura outside, and then checked to make sure Hunk and Keith were still out of earshot. “You promise you won’t tell anybody?”

          “No,” Pidge said blankly.

          Lance sighed. “It’s not anything bad.”

          “Still no,” Pidge replied.

          Lance decided to tell them anyway- Pidge had never actually shared a secret, that Lance knew of. He took a deep breath, wondering how to explain this. After a second he decided to just be honest. “I think I like Keith.”

          “All right.” Pidge sat back. “So, ask him out. The worst he can say is no.”

          “No, the worst he can do is look at me like I’m nuts and never speak to me again!” Lance exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch. “I-” He paused. “Wait, why are you so calm about this? I’m talking about _Keith._ Our friend? The frowny one?”

          “Yeah, I got it,” Pidge told him. “You’ve been, like, ogling him all day. Were we not supposed to notice that?”

           “I have?” Lance asked, starting to panic a little. “You noticed? Who else has noticed?”

           “Basically everyone, I think.”

           “Even Keith?”

           Pidge shrugged. “Yeah, but he hasn’t said anything. That’s a good sign, right?”

          “Not really.” Lance rubbed his arm, remembering that night Keith told him the flirting was irritating. Sure, he’d taken it back later, but Lance had never known Keith to speak without thinking. If he said it at all, then he must’ve been thinking it at some point. What if he was just trying to be polite and not reject Lance outright? Keith wasn’t _usually_ a really polite person, but still…

          Pidge spoke again, cutting through his thoughts. “Should I take this to mean you’re over Allura?”

          “Allura? I…” Lance paused, thinking about it. “I- I guess so,” he realized. “Yeah. This is… way different.” He’d never had the urge to lean over and kiss Allura, but it had happened with Keith, what, twice now? In a day? And he didn’t think he’d ever really looked at Allura like he’d looked at Keith. Yeah, this was completely different. He’d liked Allura, sure, and he’d wanted to hang out with her and buy her nice stuff. But with Keith…

          “Just ask him out,” Pidge said. “He’s not the kind of guy who would avoid you just because he knows you want to date him. Have some faith, man.”

          Lance thought on it for a minute, and realized that Pidge was right. Keith was a lot cooler than Lance was willing to admit out loud. He wouldn’t get all worked up over something like this.

          “Thanks, Pidge.” He nodded decisively. He’d never been good at just letting things wait- he was going to do this _today._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Determination*
> 
> (Lance procrastinates on a lot of things, but asking people out ain't one of them)
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta!


	7. Don't Worry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...  
>  *throws chapter and runs*

          Lance spent the rest of their time at the yogurt place waiting for an opportunity to tell Keith. They had to be alone, of course. He liked being the center of attention most of the time, but asking someone out? No, no, no, he could _not_ have an audience for that. Or… maybe it was just for asking out Keith, specifically? Either way, he wasn’t going to do this in front of anybody. It had to be just him and Keith.

          But there was always someone else around- Allura seemed to know something was up, and Hunk was acting pretty suspicious. Shiro had no idea whatsoever about what was going on. And Pidge was watching them like a hawk, probably trying to catch the exchange when it happened, which _really_ wasn’t helping.

          They stayed in the yogurt place until it started closing up, but they were in the middle of a long, meandering conversation, so they stood outside and talked for a while after they got kicked out.

          Lance still hadn’t gotten a chance to tell Keith, and he had resigned himself to having to tell him in the car, maybe right before Keith got out. Or right after. Maybe Lance would just roll the window down and tell Keith “Hey I think you’re hot, want to go out sometime?” And then he could just roll the window up again and drive off and face the consequences tomorrow at school. Or he could just say he was sick and not _go_ to school… for the rest of the week…. or the rest of the year…

          He shook his head. No, he was doing this _today._ And he was going to deal with it _today._

          Shiro and Allura were the first ones to leave, followed by Hunk. Lance was about to ask Pidge if they needed a ride home, too, when Matt pulled up in the car he and Pidge shared. Pidge grinned and elbowed Lance. “Knock ‘em dead.”

          “Okay,” Lance managed.

          Then Matt drove away with Pidge, leaving Lance and Keith standing outside the yogurt place.

 _Welp._ It was just the two of them now. He glanced over at Keith, who was pulling out his phone. Lance took a deep breath. “Hey, Keith?” he said.

          “Yeah?” Keith said, tapping the home button on his phone. He suddenly froze. “Shit. _Shit!_ ”

          “What?” Lance asked, alarmed.

          “Lance, it’s _ten o’clock!_ ” Keith shoved his phone in Lance’s face. “I was supposed to be home by _six!_ ” He checked his messages. Lance could see that he had several missed calls and texts from his parents. “ _Shit, shit, shit!_ ” Keith ran a hand through his hair, his eyes widening with panic. After a second Lance realized he was starting to hyperventilate.

          “Keith? Dude, hey, it’s gonna be all right.” Lance stepped in front of him and put his hands on Keith’s shoulders. “Keith. Keith, come on, man, just look at me. Come on.” Lance tilted his head down, trying to meet Keith’s eyes. He spoke as calmly as he could. “Listen to me. Just take a deep breath, okay? Calm down. You’re gonna be fine. I’ll take you back to your house right now, we’ll explain, and it’ll be all right. Just breathe.”

          With visible difficulty, Keith took a deep breath and closed his eyes. After a moment his breathing slowed, and he looked up and finally met Lance’s gaze. He let his hand drop, and slowly he nodded. “…Okay.”

          The drive back to Keith’s house was completely silent- neither of them said a single word. Keith sat with his arms crossed and his shoulders hunched. Lance couldn’t think of anything more to say to try and comfort him.

          Too soon, they were pulling into the driveway at Keith’s house. Keith took a deep breath and got out of the car. Lance followed suit, walking with him up to the porch. The porch light was on; Lance wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign, or a bad one.

          Keith hesitated, and then rang the doorbell.

          Almost immediately there were footsteps from inside, and the door opened. Both of Keith’s parents were standing in the entryway. Their eyes widened when they saw their son, and Keith’s mother immediately threw her arms around him.

         “Keith!” his dad snapped. “Where the _hell_ have you been? We were worried sick!”

         His mom let go and stepped back. “Keith, we were about to call the police! Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

         “I-I’m sorry,” Keith stammered. “My phone was on silent, because we went to see a movie…”

         “I thought you were going to the arcade,” his dad interrupted.

         Lance jumped in. “We were there for a while, but then we went to a laser tag place,” he explained, drawing all eyes to him. “Then we saw the movie, and then we went to an ice cream place, and we must’ve lost track of time. Don’t blame Keith, it was my fault.”

         Keith blinked at him in surprise, but Keith’s dad had already rounded on Lance. “You’re Lance, then?” he demanded. “The one who Keith had a fight with a few years ago?”

         “Uh, yeah,” Lance said hesitantly, trying his best not to seem nervous. “But that was in freshman year. Water under the bridge. We’re friends now.”

         “You gave him a black eye,” Keith’s dad pointed out.

         “And he almost broke my nose. We’re about even. _But_. That doesn’t have anything to do with right now,” he went on. He started to cross his arms, but stopped himself in time. They might take that as hostility. “You shouldn’t be mad at Keith. It’s totally my fault that he was out this late.”

          Keith seemed to finally find words. “Lance, what are you-”

          “It’s _totally. My. Fault,_ ” Lance repeated forcefully, deliberately not meeting Keith’s eyes.

          Keith’s parents glanced at each other. There was a long, tense silence. Then, finally, Keith’s mom told Lance, “You should go home. It’s awfully late; your own parents must be worried.”

          Lance didn’t move. “I hope I didn’t get him into trouble,” he said.

          “No,” Keith’s mother replied before her husband could say anything. “Don’t worry, you didn’t.” Then she turned to Keith. “You can go on upstairs.” She looked at her husband. “I want to talk to Lance for a minute. Alone.”

          Keith’s dad didn’t seem happy about it, but he turned and wordlessly disappeared into the other room. Then Keith’s mom raised her eyebrows at her son, who took a step back and looked at Lance again. Lance waved and gave him a grin that looked real but wasn’t. Dammit, the fake smile wasn’t going to work on Keith anymore, was it? Lance could tell Keith saw right through him and knew he was nervous.

          All the same, Keith reluctantly climbed the stairs.

          Once he was gone, his mom turned back to Lance, who was bracing for the worst.

          But what she said was, “Thank you.”

          Lance blinked, taken completely by surprise. “What?”

          “Thank you for taking care of him last night,” she said. “For letting him sleep over at your house. And for getting him home safely.”

          “Oh.” Lance rubbed his arm, embarrassed. “Well, I mean, what are friends for, right?”

          She smiled. “I’m glad Keith has a friend like you. You seem like a good kid.”

          “Right,” Lance mumbled, looking down and scuffing one foot against the doormat. He’d never been good at taking complements. Especially ones he hadn’t been expecting. At all.

          “Keith won’t get in trouble,” she told Lance again. “I promise. So go on home, all right? It’s not safe to be driving around too long after sunset.”

          “…All right,” Lance conceded at last. “Thanks.”

          “Good night, Lance.”

          “Good night.” She waited for him to get into his car before she shut the door and turned off the porch light.

          Lance buckled his seat belt and put the keys in the ignition, but he stopped before he turned the car on. He still had something to do.

          He got out of the car, went around the side of the house, and found the shed. Carefully he climbed up the fence and onto the shed’s roof. From there, he shuffled over on his hands and knees to the roof, and then to Keith’s window. He peeked inside and saw that Keith was lying flat on his back with the door closed, scrolling through something on his phone.

          Lance knocked on the window.

          Keith looked over and quickly sat up, dropping the phone. His eyes widened. He scrambled off of the bed and yanked the window open. “Lance? What are you still doing here? What did my mom say?”

          “Uh…” Lance blinked. “N-nothing much. She said you’re not in trouble,” he thought to add.

          “But what did she say to you?”

          “Don’t worry about it,” Lance told him. “It was all good things. She actually thanked me for letting you stay over and stuff.”

          Keith visibly relaxed. “Oh. Okay, good.” He glanced over his shoulder at the closed door, and then looked back at Lance. “So… what are you doing up here? My mom was right when she said it’s late.”

          “I had one last thing to tell you,” Lance told him.

          “Okay, what is it?”

          Lance took a deep breath… and stopped. He tried to think of something to say, some way to phrase it, but he was drawing a blank.

          He couldn’t do it.

          God dammit.

          “Just… you’ve always got me, all right?” he told Keith instead, hating himself for chickening out right at the last second. “You’ve always got us. We’re here for you, no matter what. I felt like somebody should probably tell it to you straight.” He tried for a smirk. “Since you’re not great at picking up on signals.”

          Keith studied him for a second, his expression difficult to read. “… I guess I’m not,” he replied at length.

          There was an awkward pause, and then Lance cleared his throat. “I… guess I should go. Bye.” He started to scoot away, but Keith reached through the window and grabbed his sleeve, saying, “Hang on a second.”

          Lance scooted back to the window. “What is it?”

          “I’ve got something to tell you, too.”

          “Okay.”  Lance waited.

          Keith’s eyebrows drew together, but he didn’t say anything. He seemed to be thinking pretty hard. Lance tilted his head. “Keith?”

          Suddenly, without a word, Keith grasped the front of Lance’s jacket, pulled him forward, and pressed his lips against Lance’s.

          Lance short-circuited. That was the only way to describe it. He froze, he stopped breathing, and he just sat there. After a moment Keith let go and pulled back, watching him for a reaction. But Lance could only stare at him.

          Then Keith’s cheeks started to darken. “I figured you should know,” he muttered, dropping his gaze to the floor. “I couldn’t think of another way to… I’m sorry if I freaked you out. I didn’t know how else I could…” He trailed off. “Sorry,” he said quietly, reaching for the window like he was going to shut it.

          Lance jolted. “No!” he yelped, and Keith looked back up at him as he went on, “No, no, no! I didn’t- I’m-” He stuttered to a halt, and then he leaned through the window and kissed _Keith._

          After a moment’s hesitation, Keith gripped Lance’s jacket again with both hands. Lance wanted to put his hands on Keith’s back, or something, but he was using them to prop himself up and keep from falling face-first onto the floor of Keiths’ room. And the windowsill was digging into his palms, which kind of hurt. It wasn’t his favorite position to be in, but it was a small price to pay because he was _kissing Keith._

         He had no idea how long it was before they came up for air. They broke apart and stared at each other, nose to nose, both breathing heavily. Lance grinned, and he could only blame a lack of oxygen flow to his brain for what he said next: “You’re not as bad at that as I figured you’d be.”

         “You trying to pick a fight?” Keith muttered, but thank god, he didn’t pull back. Lance opened his mouth to say something else, but Keith interrupted, “Just stop talking.” Then he leaned forward to press his lips against Lance’s again, effectively smothering anything else he would have said.

          It was a little while before they stopped again. This time, Keith let go of Lance and stepped back to sit down on his bed. He took a deep breath, as if collecting himself. Lance couldn’t help but notice that his face was a little flushed.

          “So,” Lance said, just to break the silence. “Are we a thing now?”

          “I-” Keith blinked. He was staring the wall two feet to the left of the window. His face was almost as red as his favorite jacket. “I guess? Are we? Do…” His gaze flicked to Lance. “Do you want to be?”

          “Uh, yeah?” Lance saw Keith start to frown at his tone and quickly changed it. “I mean, yeah. Yes. _Definitely._ Who wouldn’t want to have a ninja for a boyfriend?”

          Keith raised an eyebrow. “Did you just call me a _ninja?_ ”

          “Aren’t you? Can’t you, like, flip people and stuff?”

          “No. There’s no flipping people in tae kwon do. Also, I hope you realize that actual ninjas were nothing like whatever you saw Naruto do.”

          Lance’s eyes widened. “ _What?_ Seriously?”

          “Yeah.”

          There was a long silence before Lance sat back and said, “My life is a lie.”

          Keith snorted and shoved him lightly with one foot. “Go home, Lance.”

          Lance started to crawl away across the roof, but abruptly stopped, turned, and pointed a set of finger-guns at Keith. “See you at school tomorrow?”

          Keith sighed. “Go _home,_ Lance,” he repeated.

          Lance winked, and then scooted the rest of the way to the edge and dropped down out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm only a little bit sorry for messing with you all there at the end.
> 
> And the fic still isn't over yet. I mean, what's the point of writing two characters into a relationship when you don't get to write them being in a relationship????
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for the beta and also the chapter title!


	8. Getting Started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY FINISHED THIS
> 
> Sorry for the wait, and thanks to all of you who comment, and also to those of you who keep checking for new chapters ^_^

          When Keith woke up in the morning, he didn’t get up right away. Instead he stared at the ceiling, thinking.

          Okay. He remembered spending the day out yesterday, and he remembered Lance driving him home, and taking the heat for them being late, and then… Keith wracked his memory. No, he hadn’t gone to sleep before Lance came up to the window. No, that hadn’t been a dream. He’d kissed Lance. Lance had kissed him _back._

          Oh, god. What the _hell?_ Why had he done that? He didn’t know how to be in a relationship! He didn’t know what the hell was going to happen! _Why, why, why…_

          Someone knocked on the door, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Keith?” his mom asked. “Are you awake yet?”

          “Yeah,” Keith replied, sitting up. “I’ll be downstairs in a minute.” He didn’t want to go to school. He didn’t want to face Lance. He didn’t want to see if Lance treated him different, or if he treated him the same, because Keith wasn’t sure which was worse.

          Somehow he managed to get dressed and head downstairs to eat breakfast. He moved around the kitchen in silence, really only half awake, getting out a bowl and a box of cereal and a carton of milk. He wasn’t much of a morning person, but he’d learned to fake wakefulness and keep it up until he got home at the end of the day.

          He kept his head down and said nothing as he ate, instead scarfing his cereal in hopes his dad wouldn’t notice him- so far, he hadn’t looked up from his iPad, which was a good sign. Keith quickly finished his cereal and went to sit on the stairs by the front door until it was time to head for the bus stop.

          The time came way too early. When his watch told him he absolutely had to go or he’d miss the bus, Keith got to his feet, shouldered his backpack, and headed out the door.

          It was still before sunrise, although the edge of the sky was growing lighter. The bus stop wasn’t that far from Keith’s house, so he was there within minutes. He stood anxiously watching for the bus, wishing he had somewhere to sit so he could bob his knee or something to get rid of the nervous energy.

          Naturally, the bus was running late that day. When it finally pulled up to the curb, Keith grudgingly climbed the stairs made his way to the back of the bus to sit down. Then he waited in anxious silence as the bus pulled away from the curb.

          The bus stopped once… twice… and as it was pulling up to the third stop, Keith looked out the window and immediately spotted Lance in the small group of kids, because Lance was staring right at him. When their gazes met, Lance grinned and waved. Keith hesitantly waved back.

          A few moments later Lance had reached Keith and had plopped down and wrestled his backpack onto his lap. “Morning,” he said, grinning.

          “Morning,” Keith replied.

          There was a pause. Then, without a word, Lance moved his arm down and took Keith’s hand- the one that was resting on the seat between them. Keith looked down at their hands, and then back up at Lance.

          “What?” Lance asked. “Too mushy?”

          “Last night actually happened,” Keith said. “You… we’re…” His face went pink. He couldn’t seem to form another coherent sentence.

          “Yeah,” Lance said, moving right along. “So, when do you think we should tell the others? I mean, Pidge already knows I was going to ask you out, so-”

          “Wait, Pidge knows?” Keith asked.

          “Yeah. They convinced me I should just go ahead and ask you.”

          Keith shut his eyes briefly and took a deep breath, debating with himself whether he should be mad at Pidge or buy them a thank-you card. “Yeah, I guess we can go ahead and tell them right away,” he said.

          “Can I do it?” Lance asked excitedly.

          “Uh, sure.” Only after he had spoken did Keith realize that agreeing before he knew what Lance had in mind probably wasn’t the best idea. Too late to take it back now, though.

          “Oh,” Lance said suddenly, and let go of Keith’s hand to unzip his backpack. “You left this at my house,” he said, pulling Keith’s calculus homework out of a pocket.

          “Thanks.” Keith had completely forgotten about the homework. He stuck it in his backpack. Neither of them took the other’s hand again, although Keith kind of wished he had the nerve to do it.

          Lance kept up a running monologue for the rest of the way to school, which Keith appreciated. It was just a little bit of normalcy in the weird upheaval that had happened over the last couple of days.

          They stuck close to each other as they got off the bus and headed inside, and once or twice their shoulders brushed, but Lance didn’t take Keith’s hand again. Keith was a little disappointed, but also kind of grateful. He still wasn’t sure yet how public he wanted to make this.

          Before the bench was in sight, Lance abruptly halted. “I’m gonna stop by the bathroom,” he said. “Meet you by the others.”

          “Okay,” Keith replied, puzzled. Before he could say anything else, though, Lance had turned and disappeared down the hall.

          Still confused, Keith continued toward the group’s usual morning meeting spot. The others were already there- thank god, he wasn’t going to have to deal with breaking up Shiro and Allura again.

          Hunk was the first one to notice Keith. “Hey,” he said. Then, immediately, “Where’s Lance?”

          “He said he had to go to the bathroom,” Keith told him. He put his backpack on the floor, but before he could sit down, Allura leaned back and peered down the hall behind him. “There he is,” she said.

          Keith turned just as Lance arrived at the group, but he was still totally unprepared for what happened next.

          Lance stepped up next to him and slung an arm around Keith’s waist, and then he said, “Hey, babe,” and pulled Keith close to kiss him on the cheek.

          Keith’s mind momentarily blanked out at the unexpected gesture of affection, which was the only reason he didn’t react right away. After a second, though, his entire face quickly went pink, and then red. And then he just kind of stood there, his eyes wide.

          Nobody seemed all that surprised. Pidge turned to Hunk and held out a hand. “I win. Time to pay up.”

          Hunk sighed and pulled out his wallet. He handed Pidge a ten-dollar bill.

          Keith broke out of his catatonia to sputter, “You- you had a _bet_ going?”

          “Uh, _yeah,_ ” Pidge replied, sticking the money into their pocket. “I’m pretty sure that at least half the people you guys know were just waiting for you to get together.”

          “It _was_ fairly obvious that there are feelings between you,” Allura put in.

          Lance eyed Pidge suspiciously. “Did you make that bet after you told me to talk to Keith?”

          Pidge snorted. “We’ve had this going since the first semester of junior year. After Hunk pointed you guys out to me, I bet him you would get together before graduation, he bet it would take you longer.”

          Still a little red-faced, Keith took a seat. Lance sat cross-legged next to him, his knee bumping Keith’s thigh. He stayed that way until the bell rang, and the touch gave Keith a sort of calmness and contentment that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

          Keith passed most of the morning in a sort of blissful haze. He spent History class staring into space, and if he was normally an emotive person, he’d have been grinning like an idiot.

          Then he got to English class. The teacher was passing back a quiz from the week before. Keith sat in nervous silence until she handed him his quiz. He had to steel himself to look at the grade, and once he had, he wished he didn’t. Written underneath the grade were the words, “See me during the free period.”

 

          When Keith got on the bus in the afternoon, his shoulders were slumped as if his backpack was full of bricks. Lance was already in the back row, and he grinned and waved when he saw Keith. “I got out of class early,” he explained. Then Lance finally seemed to register Keith’s expression, and his smile faded. “What happened?”

          “My English teacher called me in during the free period,” Keith said quietly as he sat down next to Lance.

          “Oh, no.” That was never a good sign. “Why?”

          Keith stared blankly at the seat in front of them. “My grade’s in pretty bad shape. If I don’t do well enough on the final, I’ll fail the class. And if I fail the class…” he trailed off.

          “…You won’t graduate,” Lance finished for him. He was silent for a moment. “What do you need to get to pass?”

          “An A.”

          “Okay.” Lance sat back. “So, you study super hard, and get an A, and you’re home free.”

          “You don’t _get_ it!” Keith turned to face Lance. His eyes were wide. “I’ve never gotten better than a high B in that class! And that was pure luck! How the _hell_ am I supposed to get an A? And there’s no extra credit I can do! I’m dead! I’m fucking dead!”

          Before he could go on, Lance raised his hands and put them on either side of Keith’s face. He was so surprised he stopped talking.

          “You’re going to pass this test,” Lance said seriously. “I’ll help you study, myself, if I have to.”

          Keith sighed and pushed Lance’s hands away. “Why do I get the feeling that would make my grade worse?” he mumbled.

          “I’m a pretty good studier,” Lance informed him. “How do you think I pass all my classes even though I never do homework?” Keith just eyed him, so Lance reiterated, “I’m gonna help you pass this test.”

          Keith sighed. “You really don’t have to....”

          “Keith.” Lance reached over and laced his fingers through Keith’s. “We are going to do this.”

          There was a pause, and then, slowly, Keith gave a thin smile. “Thanks.”

          Lance grinned. “Hey, anything to help out the bae.”

          Keith felt his face go red. “Please don’t call me that.”

          “ _What?_ Why? It’s awesome! It’s positive, cute, gender-neutral…”

          “It’s embarrassing.”

          “You’ll get used to it, bae.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve reached the final plot threads, unfortunately. I don’t have the work ethic to keep this fic going for very long. ^_^’
> 
> The good news is, I’m working on some little spin-offs. I’ve already started working on a prequel-type one where they watch The Blair Witch Project. And I kind of want to do one where Keith goes to a swim meet to cheer on the bae. And there’s definitely going to be a haunted house one for Halloween, so keep an eye out for that.
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta!
> 
> EDIT
> 
> I should probably clarify that this is NOT the last chapter! I have at least two more planned out! I was just warning you guys that the last chapter is approaching. And also there will be shorter fics in the same universe because I'm just having too much fun but I don't want to string this out with a bunch of bad plot twists or something


	9. Study Hours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rough translations are available as hovertext and in the end notes!

         One afternoon a couple of days after Keith got the bad news about the test, Lance’s phone buzzed while he was watching TV. The buzz was his only warning before Keith’s ringtone started playing: “All my friends are heathens, take it slow…”

         He quickly grabbed the phone and hit ‘talk.’ “Hey, Keith, what’s up?”

         “Hey.” It was immediately apparent that Keith wasn’t doing so well. He sounded tired, and his voice was way quieter than usual. “Uh, I was wondering if there was any chance we could study together tonight.”

         “Sure.” Lance hesitated. “Need me to come pick you up?”

         There was a pause before Keith murmured, “That would be good.”

         “All right. See you in a few minutes.”

         “See you,” Keith replied.

         Lance grabbed his jacket from his room and trotted down the stairs. “Mamá,” he called, “¿Podemos Keith y yo estudiar aquí?”

         “Sí,” came the reply from the living room.

         “Okay,” he called, already out the door. “Hasta luego!"

 

         He got in the old car he shared with two of his brothers and drove to Keith’s house as fast as he could without breaking the speed limit too often. He pulled into the driveway, jumped out of the car, and practically dashed up to ring the doorbell.

         After a moment, the door opened. Keith’s dad stood inside. He arched an eyebrow at Lance, seeming more bemused than irritated. “Can I help you?”

         “Hi,” Lance said cheerfully. “Me and Keith were gonna study at my house today, and I’m here to pick him up.”

         Keith’s dad’s eyes narrowed. “He didn’t mention anything about studying with you.”

 _He doesn’t mention a lot of stuff to you._ “It’s for his English test,” Lance said, hoping that would help.

         There was a pause, and then Keith’s dad stepped back. “Come on in. I’ll get him.”

         After a moment’s hesitation, Lance stepped inside. Keith’s dad shut the door behind him.

         The entryway was small, and the stairs were in a room just off to the right. Keith’s dad went into the room, but instead of climbing the stairs, he shouted up, “Keith!”

         There was a pause, and then the sound of a door opening somewhere up on the second floor. “Yeah?” came Keith’s wary reply.

         “Your friend is here,” Keith’s dad called. “He says something about studying for an English test?”

         Immediately Lance heard footsteps, and a moment later Keith reached the bottom of the stairs. He was already wearing his shoes and a jacket, and was carrying his backpack. If this made Keith’s dad suspicious, he didn’t let on.

         “Be home by six,” Keith’s dad said. “And be safe.”

         Keith nodded but didn’t look at him, stepping outside without a word. Lance followed him after saying a quick goodbye to Keith’s dad.

         Neither of them spoke until they were in the car with the doors shut. Keith broke the silence. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

         “Anytime,” Lance replied, turning the car on and putting it in gear. “Do you want to talk about it, or…?”

         “No.”

         Lance was quiet for a moment, but then he had to ask something that had occurred to him on the drive over. “So… are you still grounded?”

         “Sort of,” Keith replied. “They’ve never actually grounded me before, so I think they’re having trouble deciding what I’m grounded _from._ My dad mentioned taking away my cell phone, but my mom won’t let that happen, so…” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

         “Oh.”

         When they walked into Lance’s house, they were immediately greeted by Jacob and Shepard. Keith hardly seemed to notice them. Wordlessly he walked over to the room where he’d done his homework just days before, and dropped his backpack on the floor, and wordlessly sat down on the couch. Jacob, who had followed him over, put his head on Keith’s knee and made a sad noise. Keith smiled thinly and rubbed between his ears.

         Lance started to say something, but thought better of it. Instead he went to sit on the couch next to Keith. “Are you okay?” he asked after a second.

         “I will be,” Keith murmured. “I just… need a minute.”

         Shepard trotted over and sat down with his rear end against Keith’s leg. This was how he always cuddled with people- with just his butt. Lance couldn’t help chuckling, which made Keith’s smile grow a little.

         “I never pegged you for a dog person,” Lance commented, resting his chin on his hand and watching Keith pet Jacob.

         “I don’t know,” Keith replied absently. “I’ve only ever had a turtle. But I do kind of like animals. In small doses.”

         “I can’t get enough of them,” Lance told him. “Especially dogs, they’re great.” He reached down and picked up Shepard, setting him down in his lap. Shepard seemed used to this- his stubby tail stirred briefly.

         While Keith was distracted smiling at Lance and Shepard, Jacob pulled his head away and curled up on the ground at their feet. Keith looked down at him and spotted his backpack, which reminded him that he had things to do.

         “All right,” he said. “I guess I should start studying.”

         Lance set Shepard back on the ground again. “I forgot to ask- when’s your test?”

         “Last week of school.”

         “So you’ve got two months?”

         “Yeah.”

         “And you’re starting to study _now?_ ”

         Keith eyed him. “Yeah, since I want to graduate.”

         Lance sighed. “Okay,” he relented. “Do you want my help?”

         “If you’ve got any suggestions, I’m listening.” Keith pulled out his notebook and got to work.

 

         Studying at Lance’s house became a regular thing. Some days Keith just got off the bus at Lance’s stop and studied with Lance until dinnertime. Other days were more like the first one- he called Lance later in the evening after a particularly bad one-sided conversation with his dad.

         Sometimes they watched movies, or just sat and talk, but usually they studied. Keith seemed to find studying a better distraction than anything else, which Lance didn’t understand but respected nonetheless. Once he gave Keith the studying ideas, Keith pretty much did everything else himself. Lance was just there to keep him company, and also to keep an eye out for when he’d been studying too long and his forehead was starting to knot up.

         Whenever this happened, Lance suggested they take a break. Keith took some convincing the first few times, but he soon realized that Lance had a point. There was no point in studying super hard and burning yourself out. It would only make things worse.

         One day, about a month after the study sessions began, Lance pulled up something on his iPod during one of their breaks. “I’ve got something for you to listen to,” he said, holding out an earphone.

          A moment passed before Keith asked suspiciously, “Is this one of those weird Japanese songs again?”

          “It’s not, I promise.” Lance said.

          Warily Keith took the earphone and stuck it in his ear. Lance hit play. At first there was just drums and a high hat, and then Keith heard a familiar voice sing, “Some-”

          He yanked the earphone out of his ear. “I’m not listening to this.”

          “Oh, come on!” Lance protested. “I promise it’s not what you think it is.”

          Keith studied him suspiciously, but after a moment, he put the earphone back in. Lance ran the song back to the beginning and hit play. Again with the drumbeats, and then the singer: “SomeBODY once told me the CHAAAAANGE is gonna roll me-”

          Again Keith pulled the earphone out. “Lance, what the-”

          “Just _listen,_ ” Lance told him, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

          There was a pause, and then Keith gave a long-suffering sigh and put the earphone in again. Lance ran the song back to the beginning. Again. And then he let it play. After that, Keith could do nothing but sit and listen in appalled silence. He had no idea what he was even supposed to think.

          After the song finally ended, Keith could only stare at Lance.

          “Well?” Lance asked, grinning.

          A few seconds passed before Keith finally found words. “What the _fuck?_ ”

          Lance started to laugh. “I know, right?”

          “Why did you make me listen to that?” Keith demanded.

          “I don’t know!” Lance replied, still laughing. “It’s just so weird!”

          Keith yanked the earphone out and threw it in Lance’s lap, and then started to get to his feet.

          “Oh, come on, Keith!” Lance wrapped his arms around Keith and pulled him back down on top of himself. “You’ve got to admit it was funny!”

          “I have nothing to say to you,” Keith said, struggling halfheartedly to get away, but Lance just hugged him tighter. “Lance, come on, your legs are going to fall asleep-” Without warning, Lance kissed him under his jaw. Keith probably wouldn’t have reacted like he did if he’d been expecting it. But he hadn’t been expecting it, and that’s why he was startled into laughing.

          The laugh encouraged Lance, who grinned. “How were you such a jerk when we met?” he demanded. “You’re like a big, grumpy teddy bear in a red jacket!” Without waiting for a reply, or possibly to avoid one, he pressed his face against Keith’s neck and blew, creating a really spectacular fart noise.

          “Oh my _god LANCE!_ ” Keith struggled, but he was laughing so hard he could barely get the words out. “Lance! Cut- cut it out!” Lance blew against his neck again, and he quit flopping around and dissolved into laughter.

          “Que está sucediendo aquí?” somebody asked, and Keith looked up just as a brown-skinned man with a mustache stuck his head into the room. He stopped and blinked when he saw them. “Oh…lo siento. Don’t mind me.” He awkwardly stepped out of the room again.

          Keith felt something cold in the pit of his stomach. He climbed off of Lance. “Who…?”

          “That was my dad,” Lance told him. “Don’t worry, he knows I’m bi, and he’s good with it and everything.”

          “Oh.” Keith relaxed a little. “Then why did he seem kind of…?”

          Lance grinned. “I’m pretty sure he thinks he just walked in on us making out. Him acting awkward doesn’t have anything to do with you being a guy, trust me.”

          “Oh. Okay. That’s good to know.” He sat there a second, and then he frowned as something occurred to him. “Hey, Lance? Can I ask you something?”

          “Sure,” Lance replied.

          Keith took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to word this. “Your family seems pretty cool, and understanding and all,” he began.

          “They are,” Lance agreed cheerfully.

          Keith nodded absently. “So… how come you got to be such a good liar?”

          Lance seemed to freeze a little. “Huh?”

          “You lied pretty convincingly when everyone asked what was up when we were acting weird.” Keith glanced up at him. “You just rattled off an excuse right off the top of your head, and they believed you. Do you do that a lot?”

          There was a long pause. Lance was watching the floor. After a minute, Keith said, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

          Lance sighed. “No, it’s just…” He rubbed his arm. “It’s… I guess I mostly do it when I’m not feeling so hot. Like, when I’m sad and stuff. I mean, I don’t want you guys to worry about me, so I try not to let you notice.”

          Keith frowned. “Why don’t you want us to worry?”

          “Ah, well, I mean, it usually just goes away on its own, so it’s not like I really need help or anything. And I heard somewhere that smiling when you don’t feel like it can be good for you. Fake it til you make it, you know?”

          “I don’t know if I believe that,” Keith said. “Seems like it would be worse to act like you’re fine when you’re not.”

          Lance just shrugged. “Well, I’m kind of the humor in the group, y’know? If I’m not making jokes, it’ll bring everyone down. Remember when we were all awkward? It messed up the group’s vibe and stuff.”

          Keith was silent again. He really wished he was better with words- he needed to figure out how to tell Lance that this wasn’t good. That it was okay to let people know he was upset.

          After a minute, though, he gave up trying to think of a way to say it Instead, he wordlessly leaned over and wrapped his arms around Lance. There was a pause, and then Lance’s shoulders drooped. He lifted his hands and hugged Keith back. “I thought _I_ was supposed to be the one getting _you_ to talk about your feelings,” he mumbled.

          “It can go both ways,” Keith replied. After a second, he sat back and managed a small smile. “You can talk to us,” he said. “I mean, what are friends for?”

          Lance’s cheeks went a little dark, but he smiled back. “Thanks, Keith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Mom, can Keith and I study here?"  
> "See you later!"
> 
> "What's going on in here?"  
> "Sorry"  
> ___________  
> In light of recent revelations, I’m really wishing I knew some Cuban colloquialisms. Unfortunately, all I’ve got is Mexican and Colombian ones, so I’m sticking with more common stuff.
> 
> No beta for this one, so if you spot a mistake, feel free to let me know! Also, the next chapter will be the last one, just a warning for you guys.
> 
> If you want to know what Lance had Keith listen to… [here it is](http://worthikids.tumblr.com/post/90740449867/what-am-i-even-doing-anymore-what-does-this-all)
> 
> About the ringtone... I feel like Lance probably made that Keith's ringtone to be funny and just decided it actually fit him and left it
> 
> (I have a tumblr specifically for writing and fandom stuff now! [It's right here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/))


	10. Boss Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After recent events in the US, I’m just doing what I can to stay positive, and what I can do right now is POST THIS MOTHERFUCKING FLUFF
> 
> ENJOY

          As the day of the test approached, it started getting harder and harder for Lance to get Keith to take a break from his studying. “I _need_ to pass this test,” he told Lance for the millionth time, the weekend before the test. They were sitting on a couch in Lance’s house on a Saturday. Lance had been a little irritated at first at feeling obligated to spend his Saturday scrolling through his phone and keeping an eye on Keith, but reconsidered when he started to notice how manic Keith was getting about his studying,

Keith rubbed his forehead, staring fixedly at his notes. “If I don’t past this, I’ll- I’ll… I don’t know! I have to pass, because if I don’t pass, then it won’t _matter_ that I got accepted into a school, because- I don’t know! I can’t go to college without a high school diploma, right?”

          “Dude. You’re going to do fine. You’re going to pass and get the diploma and go to that huge-ass state school you got into.”

          Keith just groaned and put his head in his hands.

          “Aw, hey, come on.” Lance put an arm around him and pulled him into a hug. When Keith still didn’t lift his head, Lance put his other arm around him and started rocking back and forth. Keith made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh, but he still didn’t look up.

Finally Lance told him, “If you don’t look up, or something, I’m gonna have to start singing, and you do _not_ want that.”

          There was a long pause. “But I like your singing,” Keith mumbled.

          Lance stopped rocking and turned his head to look at him. “Huh? When have you ever heard me sing?”  
          Keith looked up, arching an eyebrow. “Uh, a lot? I’ve known you for four years, Lance. You kind of sing to yourself sometimes, when you’re bored.” He hesitated. “You’ve been doing it a lot when I’m studying. I’m s-”

          “ _Nope,_ don’t apologize,” Lance interrupted. “I’m hanging out with you because I want to and because I’m just an awesome boyfriend.”

          Keith hummed. “…Can you let go of me now?”

          “What, you don’t like cuddling?”

          _Of course I do. Cuddling is good. Cuddling is amazing._ “I need to get back to work.”

          “Oh.” Lance released him. “Okay.”

          Keith looked back down at his book. A moment later, he looked up again. “Thanks, Lance.”

          Lance grinned. “No problem. It’s part of the job description.”

         

          The night before the test, Keith was so nervous he could barely sleep. Listening to his dad asking him over and over all evening “Did you study?” “When?” “How much?” didn’t help. He tried texting Lance a couple of times, but they were never read. After a little while, he decided Lance had probably fallen asleep watching another chick flick. It figured.

          He must have fallen asleep at some point, because his alarm woke him up at six o’clock in the morning. He dragged himself through his morning routine and did his best to ignore his dad. Which he pretty much succeeded in doing.

          When Lance sat down next to him on the buss, Keith wordlessly reached over and laced their fingers together. Lance gave his hand a squeeze and said nothing.

          The bench was unusually quiet that day. The others seemed worried that talking too loudly might scare Keith, or break his concentration, or something. But really, as the bell grew closer, Keith was starting to look like he was going to be sick.

          Hunk was the first to notice, besides Lance. “Hey, man,” he said, squinting worriedly. “Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse, or something?”

          Keith shook his head. “I’ll be fine.”

          But as the bell rang and they headed for their first classes, he still wasn’t looking good. Even Pidge seemed worried, but they didn’t say anything because they couldn’t think of anything that might have helped. Lance, meanwhile, already had a plan in his head.

         

          By the time Keith left History, he felt like he had a bowling ball in his stomach. And he felt like he might throw up before he made it to his desk. Could he maybe take the test later if he barfed? Get a little more time to study?

          “Keith? Hello? You okay?”

          He stopped and blinked. Lance stood near the doorway to Keith’s English class. Keith hurried over. “Lance, what are you doing here? Isn’t your class on the other side of the school? You’ll be late.”

          “Ah, what else is new?” Lance shrugged. “I came to give you one last pep talk.”

          Keith sighed. “Lance, I don’t need a pep talk.”

          “You kind of seem like you’re feeling a little barfy,” Lance told him.  
          “Well, I don’t anymore,” Keith replied, only just realizing it. “You should get to class.”

          “Hang on, I’ve got one more thing.” Lance put both of his hands on Keith’s shoulders. “You’ve been studying for this for literally months. You’ve definitely got this, babe.”

          His expression was so serious Keith almost laughed. Instead, he settled for giving the best smile he could manage. “You’re right, babe. I do.”

          And then he turned and walked into the classroom. He would never know that he’d just made Lance short-circuit again.

          An hour and a half later, Keith left the English classroom feeling like someone had put his brain in a blender and pushed puree. He was too worn out to be nervous. He had no idea how he’d done. At this point he was scared to hope. He wasn’t sure he’d have any feelings about the test whatsoever until the day he got his test back.

          The others asked him how he thought he did, but he could only shrug and tell them, “I really don’t know. We don’t get them back until next Monday.”

          He tried not to think about it. He really tried. But trying not to think about something had never worked for him before, and it definitely didn’t work this time. He got almost no sleep the night before the day he got his grade.

          When he walked into class, everybody was chatting it up as usual. He sat down at his desk and stared at it, hands clenched, waiting. The bell rang. The teacher said some stuff. He heard “I’ll go ahead and pass your tests back now.” She walked around the room, setting tests on people’s desks upside-down.

          Keith was still staring at his desk when she put his test in front of him. He stared at the blank white sheet on the back for a full minutes without moving.

          Then he stuck it in his backpack without looking.

 

          As he was heading for the bus at the end of the day, he yet again found Lance waiting for him, this time by the front doors of the school. He stepped to the side to get out of the stream of students and made his way over to where Lance was standing. “You should be on the bus. What are you doing here.”

          “ _We_ are meeting up with everyone else,” Lance replied, grabbing Keith’s hand and pulling him back down the hall. “Come on, they’re in the senior parking lot.”

          “What? What’s going on? I haven’t heard about us doing anything today.”

          Lance grinned over his shoulder. “Well, _duh._ It’s a _surprise._ ”

          Keith stammered a couple more questions as Lance led him out the doors and down the rows of cars, but he shut up when he saw his friends standing around Allura’s SUV, which had its trunk open. He could tell there was something in the tailgate, but couldn’t tell what it was.

          “Hi,” Shiro said as they arrived. “We just finished setting up. What do you think?”

          Keith finally got a good look in the truck. There were three red balloons in the trunk, as well as a plastic container full of chocolate-chip cookies and a large bottle of root beer, and a stack of red cups. “What’s this?” he asked.

          “A surprise party,” Allura told him.

          “Which reminds me,” Hunk spoke up. “Are we celebrating or consoling? What did you get on the test.”

          There was a long silence while they all stared at Keith, waiting. He shifted uncomfortably. “I, uh… I haven’t checked yet. I just put it in my binder without looking at it.”

          The others glanced at each other. Shiro was the first one to say, “Go ahead and check it.” He grimaced. “Putting it off won’t change the grade.”

          Reluctantly Keith pulled his binder out of his backpack and found the test- he’d stuffed it in upside-down. He looked around at the others, who were watching him intently. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath.

          Keith flipped it over and read the red pen in the upper right-hand corner.

          _92_

_Good job!_

There was a long pause while everybody stared at the paper in silence. “I did it,” Keith said in disbelief.

          The words seemed to break some kind of spell- suddenly everyone was yelling. Allura was clapping frantically; Pidge punched the air and shouted; Shiro was grinning and saying something that was drowned out by everyone else; Lance had grabbed Keith’s shoulder and was shaking him and talking excitedly; Hunk actually leaned over and enveloped both Keith and Lance in a bear hug that squeezed the breath out of their lungs.

          A good number of people in the parking lot were staring, but it was a minute or two before everyone finally calmed down. Keith was still staring at his score in shock.

          “This calls for cookies,” Hunk decided, picking up the container and holding it out to Keith. “You get first pick.”

          “They’re all the same,” Keith said blankly.

          “Then just pick one! I’m hungry!”  
          Allura suddenly broke in, “Hold on, there’s one more thing! She went around to the passenger door and fished around for a moment and then came back with a card. “It’s from all of us,” she said.

          Keith took the card and looked at it. There was a smiling red cat on the front, and nothing else. He opened it. Allura had written, “Congratulations!” on the inside, and everyone else had signed it.

          He couldn’t speak for a moment. “I-” He was finding it hard to speak, all of a sudden. “Thanks, guys.”

          “Aww, you’re welcome,” Hunk told him as Lance said, “Now, grab a cookie so the rest of us can have one, too.”

          Keith shot Lance a look and then grabbed a cookie out of the container. “All right, you happy?”

          As everyone else but Shiro dove for the cookies, Keith stepped back and started eating his. “So, you guys really had this much faith I’d get an A?” he asked.

          Shiro smiled, a tad nervously. “Well, uh…”

          “We had two cards,” Pidge explained, appearing suddenly on Keith’s other side. “One for if you did it, and one for if you didn’t.”

          “Oh,” Keith said. “Uh… thanks?”

          “You want the other card?”

          “Not… really.”  
          Pidge shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m sure it’ll come in handy someday.”

          Keith eyed them. “You’re a real comfort, you know that?”

          Pidge smirked. “I try.”

          The celebration lasted about half an hour, and of course by then Lance and Keith had missed their bus. Allura ended up volunteering to drive them home. She dropped off Keith first, despite Lance’s house being closer to the school. He climbed out of the passenger seat and turned to tell them, “See you guys tomorrow.”

          Then, just as Keith was about to shut the door, Lance said, “Hey, Keith?”

          Keith stuck his head back in. “Yeah?”

          Lance hesitated and glanced at Allura. “Uh… never mind.”

          “Well, okay. See you tomorrow,” Keith repeated, and then shut the door.

 

          The evening was more or less uneventful. Keith’s parents congratulated him on his score, and his mom made his favorite dinner in celebration. He endured his dad’s “I knew you could pass this class if you just tried to,” and tried to enjoy the celebration. It definitely wasn’t as much fun as the one he’d had at school, though.

          As he sat on his bed that evening, reading, he wasn’t at all surprised to hear a knock on his window. He looked up.

          Outside the window, kneeling on the roof of the porch, was Lance. Grinning and holding up a bag of chocolate mini donuts.

          Keith opened the window. “What are you doing here? And why did you bring me donuts again?”

          “Those donuts were to cheer you up,” Lance pointed out, shifting to sit cross-legged. “These donuts are to celebrate. And hey, while I was climbing up here, I thought of something.” He handed Keith the donut bag and pulled his shoes off, and then slipped through the window to stand in Keith’s room. “See? Ta-da. No tracks on the carpet.”

          “Okay.” Keith sat on the bed and opened the donuts. Lance sat next to him and stuck his hand in the bag. “Hey!” Keith protested.

          “I bought these myself.” Lance stuffed two into his mouth and continued with his mouth full, “I get to have a few.”

          “Whatever.”

          They sat and shared the donuts for a while without talking. Lance bumped his knee against Keith’s a couple of times, but Keith couldn’t tell whether it was intentional or not, so he pretended not to notice.

          Finally Lance spoke up. “So… how are you doing?”

          Keith glanced at him. “Better, I guess, now that I’m not stressing about the test.” He sighed and shifted to sit with his back against the headboard. “I’d almost forgotten what it was like not to be constantly freaking out.”

          “That’s… good?” Lance ventured. Then he quickly backpedaled. “I mean, it’s good that you’re not freaking out, not that you’d, like, forgotten what it was like _not_ to be freaking out.”         

          “I know what you meant,” Keith assured him.

          Lance sighed in relief. “That’s good.” After a marked hesitation, he moved over to sit up against Keith. Keith leaned against him and Lance put an arm around him.

          They sat like that in silence for a while. Keith hadn’t felt this relaxed in a while. He put his head on Lance’s shoulder and just let himself feel warm and safe and calm. He was actually starting to doze off when Lance asked, “So, can I kiss you now?”

          Keith looked up, suddenly awake again. “What?”

          “Well, I haven’t been doing it before because I kind of figured you had way bigger things to worry about,” Lance admitted. “And you never tried to kiss me, so that kind of reinforced what I was thinking? And I was wondering… now that all the stuff is over, would you be okay with me kissing you again?”

          “Yes,” Keith replied immediately. Lance blinked in surprise, and Keith felt his face heat. “I mean, yeah, you can, if you want to. You don’t really have to ask.”

          Lance pulled him closer and leaned in, grinning. “Yeah, well, Mamá raised me to be polite.”

          Keith gave him a skeptical look. “I haven’t seen any evidence of-”

          He never finished his sentence, though. He was otherwise occupied.

 

          Keith’s mom was walking up the stairs when she noticed Keith’s door was partially ajar and heard lowered voices from the other side. As she reached the top of the stairs, she peeked through the opening of the door. Immediately she stepped back, wordlessly pulled the door shut, and headed back downstairs.

          As she stepped into the living room, her husband looked up and frowned, puzzled. “I thought you said you were going to bed.”

          “I changed my mind,” she told him, sitting down on the couch and picking up the remote to turn on the tv. Loud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe they're having a tickle fight. Maybe not. Regardless, Keith's mom doesn't know what's going to happen up there and she honestly doesn't want to.  
> _________  
> So, I'm choosing to end this fic on a relatively positive note; Keith and Lance are together and happy, and they're both going away to college in the fall (probably to the same huge-ass school) so they'll continue dating AND Keith will only have to deal with his dad during holidays. It's not a solution, it's not 'happily ever after,' but it's a start. And this kind of ending is among my favorites. I love story lines that finish out with things looking up.
> 
> And for anyone who needs to hear it:  
> Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing some spin-offs of scenes that I wanted to write but couldn't fit into the story! There's only one right now, unfortunately, but more will follow.
> 
> [Scream Manor](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8427187), in which the gang goes to a haunted house. Takes place the Halloween after Lifeline.


End file.
